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MINNESOTA: 




ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 



BEING A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF 

ITS HISTORY AND PROGRESS, CLIMATE, SOIL, AGRICULTURAL 

AND MANUFACTURING FACILITIES, COMMERCIAL 

CAPACITIES, AND SOCIAL STATUS ; 

ITS LAKES, RIVERS AND RAILROADS; 

HOMESTEAD AND EXEINIPTION LAWS ; 

EMBRACINa A CONCISE TREATISE ON ITS 

CLIMATOLOGY, IN A HYGIENIC AND SANITARY POINT 

OF VIEW ; 

ITS UNPAEALLELED SALUBRITY, GROWTH AND 
PRODUCTIVENESS, 

AS COMPARED WITH THE OLDER STATES ; 
AND THE 

ELEMENTS OF ITS FUTURE GREATNESS AND PROSPERITY. 




T^OR GUIATXJITOXJS CIRCXJLA.TIOIV, 

ORDER COPIES TO ANY ADDRESS, FROM 

GIRABT HEWITT, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA. 
1867. 



STATEMENT 



In tiie preparation of this pamphlet care has been taken to faith- 
fully and impartially represent the whole State, and to avoid 
exfiggeration ; believing that Minnesota needs but a plain &tatement of 
facts with which to go before the world for her full share of those 
seeking homes in the Great West. 

It is oflfered for gratuitous circulation, in order that persons here 
and elswhere, knowing our healthy climate and prolific soil, may 
let their friends and others seeking new homes, know of Minnesota, 
before they incur the fearful risk of plunging themselves and families 
into the fever-ridden districts of other States. 

I am indebted to Dk. Thaddeus Williams, of St. Paul, for the 
thorough and reliable treatise on " The Climate of Minnesota, as 
a Resort for Invalids," and other assistance. 

Coming to Minnesota over ten years ago an invalid, myself a 
beneficiary of its healthy climate, and seeing thousands of like cases, I 
have felt it a duty and a pleasure to make this effort to let others know 
what manner of State we have. 

GIRART HEWITT. 

St. Paul, Minnesota, 1867. 



^to' 



N o T i:c E . 



a®" This pamphlet is published for general gratuitous circulation. 
The object being to invite attention to our great State,' and make Min- 
nesota known everywhere. For that purpose it is deposited with 
GiRAKT Hewitt, St. Paul, MiNNESOTA^^ho wiU mail it to any names 
sent him, and cheecfully answer letters of uiquiry as to this State, 



Entwcd according to Act of Congrefts, in the year 1867, by GIRART HEWITT, Ln 

the Clerk'B Office of the District Court of the United States 

for the District of Minnesota. 



PiMd Printing Compftny, Bo©k and Job Printers and Bookbinders St. Paul. 



MIDSriSTESOTA.: 

ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 



GEOGRAPHICAL. 



The State of Minnesota is one of the youngest in the united sisterhood of 
States. It was admitted into the Union in May, 1858, being the thirty-second 
State admitted into the Union. It derives its name from two Indian words, 
" Minne " and " Sotah," " sky-tinted water," in reference to its numerous and 
beautiful streams and lakes which from their crystal purity reflect the clear, steel- 
blue skies. The State lies between 43= 30' aud 49^ north latitude, and 91° 
and 97^ 5' west longitude. It is bounded on the north by the British Posses- 
sions ; on the south by the State of Iowa ; east by Wisconsin and Lake Supe- 
rior, and west by Dakota Territory. Its estimated area is 84,000 square miles, 
or about 54,000,000 acres, thus making it one of the largest States in the Union, 
being nearly equal to the combined areas of the large and populous States of 
Ohio and Pennsylvania, and embracing a larger extent of territory than the 
whole of New England, capable of eventually sustaining a population equal to 
that of England. 

Advantageous Geographical Position. — The geographical position of Min- 
nesota is the most favored on the continent. Its location is central between 
the Atlantic and Facilic Oceans, Hudson's Bay on the north, and the Gulf of 
•Mexico on the south. It is also midway between the arable Umitsof the con- 
tinent, where the products of agriculture attain their most perfect development. 
Generally speaking, the valleys of the Mississippi, St. Lawrence and Red River 
may be said to rise in the form of a huge convex mass, which culminates in the 
^sand dunes or drift hills in the northern part of Minnesota, where those three 
great rivers take theh- rise and flow north, south and northeast. Minnesota is thus 
the actual summit cf the continent, and the pinnacle of the watershed of North 
America. In reference to this fact, the Hon. Wm. H. Seward, in a speech 
delivered at St. Paul in 1860, says, " Here spring up almost side by side, so 
that they may kiss each other, the two great rivers of the continent," the 
Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, rising almost within a stone's throw of each 
other, and running in opposite directions,— the one half way to Europe, the 
other bearing our commrce to the Gulf of Mexico, gathering the products of 
the cotton plantations of the South aud bringing them to the vast water powers 
of the Upper Mississippi. 

The arable area of the vast temtory northwest of ub — bounded on the north 
by the line of arctic temperature, and south by the arid sandy plains — is pro- 
jected through the valley of the Saskatchewan to the Pacific border ; " grimly 
guaided by the Itasca summit of the Mississippi, 1C80 feet high on the east, 
and the Missouri coteau, 20u0 feet high on the west," it forms " the only avenue of 
commercial communication between the oast and west coasts, the only possible 
route of a Pacific railway, and the only theater now remaining for the formation 
of new settlements." Lying exactly across the commercial isthmus thus hcnmied 
in, and which is the only outlet of this vast region to the Eastern and Southern 
States, Minnesota is the gateway between the eastern and western sides of the 
continent. " Through this one pass," says Mr. Wheelock, " between the con- 



4 MINNESOTA : 

tinental deserts of sand and ice, must flow the great oxodus now dashing itself in 
vain against their shores, as the tribes of Asia flowed into Europe through the 
passes of the Caucasus. Every advancing wave of population lifts higher and 
higher this gathering flood of American life, which, the moment that it begins 
to press upon the means of subsistence, must pour all its vast tide through 
this narrow channel into the inland basins of the Northwest — till the Atlantic 
and Pacific are united in a living chain of populous States." 

ITiis commanding physical position of Minnesota gives it the key and control 
of the outlet of the great mass of the commerce of the immense and produc- 
tive regions of the western and northwestern portions of the continent — regions as 
yet almost a wilderness, but whose incalculably large exports and imports, fol- 
lowing the inexorable laws of commerce, must find their highway through our 
State, when at no distant day those large and fertile districts north and west 
of us swarm with the industry of empires, and pour their wealth into our 
cofiers, giving us a significance second to none in the world. Not only that, 
but, instead of passing by us and going two thousand miles east to trade, the 
workshops and factories which even now are opening up so rapidly on our wa- 
ter-powers will supply them and enrich us ; thus making this vast region tributary 
to us f^ surely as the West ever has heretofore been tributary to the East. Notic- 
ing this fact, in the speech already alluded to, Mr. Seward says, " Here is the place, 
the central place, where the agriculture of the richest region of North America 
must pour out its tributes to the whole world. On the east, all along the shore 
of Lake Superior, and west, stretching in one broad plain, in a belt quite across 
the continent, is a country where State after State is yet to arise, and where the 
productions for the support of human society in the old, crowded States must 
be brought forth." Then follows the remarkable and far-seeing views of this 
great statesman and politician, that Minnesota is yet to exercise a powerful 
influence in the political destinies of this continent. " Power is not to reside 
permanently on the eastern slope of the Aleghany mountains, nor in the seaports. 
Seaports have always been overrun and controlled by the people of the interior, 
and the power that shall communicate and express the wiU of men on this conti- 
nent is to be located in the Mississippi Valley, and at the sources of the Missis- 
sippi and St. Lawrence." Mr. Seward only expresses the fact, taught by the 
whole past history of the whole world, that empire travels westward, when he 
asserts, " I now believe that the ultimate, last seat of government on this grtat 
continent will be found somewhere within a circle or radius not very far from the 
spot on which I stand, at the head^of navigation on the Mississippi River." 

The future destiny of Minnesota therefore is to be a glorious one, and fortu- 
nate the descendants of those who may now obtain an interest and foothold 
within her borders. "We will proceed to speak more specially of the true ele- 
ments of this future greatness and prosperity, as already indicated by the 
unerring logic of facts and unparalleled growth. 

HISTOEIOAL OUTLENE. 

Minnesota is what was once the " land of the Dakotas," who inhabited it long 
before their existence was known to white men. Their chief council chamber 
was in Carver's Cave, near where the present capital of the State now stands. 

The honor of discovering Minnesota is divided between Louis Hennepin, a 
Franciscan priest, and DuLuth, a French explorer. Hennepin was sent out in 
the spring of 1680 to explore the Upper Mississippi in company with two 
traders ; he was captured by the Indians and carried to the present site of St. 
Paul. On his return in June, he met DuLuth and a party of explorers. He 
claims to have discovered the Falls of the Mississippi, and bestowed upon them 
the name of St. Anthony in honor of his patron saint. 

In 1689, Perrot, accompanied by LeSueur and others, took formal possession 
of the country embracing Minnesota, in the name of France, and established a 
fort on the west shore of Lake Pepin. Although discovered upwards of two 
hundred years ago, the settlement of Minnesota did not commence until about 
twenty years ago, with the exception of a few scattering pioneer hunters, traders 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 5 

and missionaries, •who took up their abode in it at a much earlier date. During 
the lapse of two centuries the vast northwest, embracing the best lands and 
climate on the continent, remained a wilderness, while the Atlantic and Western 
States were being settled. Yery vague and erroneous notions prevailed in 
regard to this region, which was popularly supposed to be too cold and inhos- 
pitable for agricultural pursuits. But this region reproduces the west and north 
of Europe, containing the most powerful and enlightened nations on the globe, 
with the exceptions caused by vertical configuration only, and gives an immense 
and yet unmeasured capacity for occupation and expansion, containing an area 
above the forty-third parallel, perfectly adapted to the fullest occupation by 
cultivated nations, not inferior to the whole of the United States east of the 
Mississippi. 

This region, extending to the Pacific, and of which Minnesota is the "garden 
^ot," is yet destined to supersede in wealth and agricultural and manufacturing 
importance the older part of the United States, lying on the Atlantic coast and 
east of the Mississippi, and to become the seat of empire on the A merican 
continent 

" The parallel in regard to the advancement of American States here may be 
drawn with the period of the earliest trans- Alpine Roman expansion, when Gaul, 
Scandinavia, and Britain were regarded as inhospitable regions, fit only for 
barbarian occupation. The enlightened nations then occupied the latitudes near 
the Mediterranean, and the richer northern and western covm tries were unopened 
and unknown.'"* 

In the year 169.5, the second post in Minnesota was established by LeSueur ; 
and in October, 1700, he explored the Minnesota and Blue Earth rivers and 
established another post on the latter. From this period up to 1746, the history 
of Minnesota is nothing more than the history of the adventures of LeSueur 
and the traders among the Indians, and the wars of the latter among themselves, 
acid is full of wild and romantic incidents. At this time France and England 
were involved in a war which extended to their colonies in the New World, and 
the French enlisted many savages of the Upper Mississippi on their side. 

On the 8th of September, 1760, the French delivered up their posts in Canada 
to the English. By a treaty made at Versailles in 1763, France ceded the 
territory comprised within the limits of Minnesota and Wisconsin to England. 
But for a long time the English got no foothold in their newly acquired territory, 
owing to the greater popularity of the French, many of whom had married 
Indiai; wives. But little was known of the country prevnous to 1766, when 
Jonathan Carver of Connecticut explored it, and afterwards went to England and 
wrote a book of his adventures. Even at this early day, though over a thousand 
miles intervened between the Falls of St Anthony and any white settlement, the 
explorer was impressed with the beauty and fertility of the country, and spoke 
of the commercial facilities its future inhabitants would enjoy via the Mississippi 
and the northern chain of lakes. Carver's Cave at St. Paul, m which several 
bands of Indians held an annual grand council— making it the capital of the 
State a hundred years ago — was named after him. 

After the peace between the United States and England in 1783, England 
eeded her claim to the territoiy south of the British Possessions to the 
United States. December 20, 1803, the province of Louisiana, embracing that 
portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi, was ceded to the United States by 
France, who on the first of the same month had received it from Spain ; the 
latter objected to the transfer, but withdrew her opposition in 1804. In 1805, 
Gen. Zebulon M, Pike explored this region of country, and his reports, and 
those of Long, Fremont, Pope, Marcy, Stansborry, and other military officers 
exerted a large influence in first attracting attention to Minnesota as a field for 
settlement. He obtained a grant of land from the Sioux Indians on which Fort 
Snelling, five miles above St. Paul, was built in 1820. 

The English traders still lingered in Minnesota after its cession to the United 
States, and incited by thorn against the Americans, the Indians became trouble- 

*" Blodget's Climatology of the United States," page 529. 



6 MINNESOTA : 

some, and during the war of 1812 generally took sides with the English, After 
the peace of lbl5 they acknowledged the authority of the United States, but 
the Ojibways and Dakotas (or Siouxs) being hereditary enemies continued to 
war among themselves. In 1812 a small settlement was formed in the Red 
River country, composed principally of Scotchmen, under the auspices of Lord 
Selkirk. They were greatly persecuted by the Hudson Bay Company, who 
claimed the sole right of hunting and trading for furs in the northwest. In 1821, 
" after years of bloodshed, heart-burnings, fruitless litigation, and vast expense, 
the strife was concluded by a compromise between the two companies." In 
1822, the first mill in Minnesota was erected where Minneapolis now stands. 
In 1823, the first steamboat that ever ascended the Mississippi above Rock 
Island, arrived at Fort Snelling to the great astonishment of the natives. 

In 1820, Missouri was admitted into the Union asaState, leaving the territory 
north of it, including Iowa and all of Minnesota west of the river, without any 
organized government. In 1834, it was attached to Michigan for judicial pur- 
poses. In 1836, Nicollet arrived in Minnesota and spent some time in exploring 
the sources of the Mississippi. 

In 1837, the pine forests of the valley of the St. Croix and its tributarieswere 
ceded to the United States by the Ojibways ; and the same year the Dakotas 
ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi. These treaties were ratified June 
15, 1838. 

One of the earliest settlers in St. Paul, the present capital of the State, was 
named Phalon. Other families from the Red River settlement settling there. 
Father Gaultier, a Catholic missionary, built a log chapel, "blessed the new 
basilica" and dedicated it to St. Paul, which thus came to be the namo of the 
city, which previous to that time had been called " Pig's eye." In 1848, St. 
Paul was a small settlement, and eontained only 840 inhabitants in 1849 ; in 
1855 it had four or five thousand ; 10,600 in 1860, and about 14,000 in 1865, 
and 16,000 in 1866. 

In 1843, the settlement of Stillwater, on the St. Croix, 18 miles from St. Paul, 
was commenced. 

Territorial Organization. — On the 3d of March, 1849, the Territory of 
Minnesota was organized, its boundaries including the present Temtory of 
Dakota, and St. Paul designated as the capital. April 28th the first newspaper 
was issued in the new capital. Alexander Ramsey was appointed Governor, 
and arrived with his family the latter part of May. On the first of June he 
proclaimed the Territorial government organized. The Territory contained 
4,680 inhabitants at this time. 

After the organization of the Territory, immigration flowed in rapidly, and 
both St. Paul and country were settled veiy fast On the 1st of August, 1849, 
the first delegate (H. H. Sibley) was elected to Congress, and on the 3d of 
September the first Legislative Assembly met and created nine counties. In 
1850, small steamboats commenced to run on the Minnesota river. 

In 1851, an important treaty was effected with the Dakotas, by which their 
title to the west side of the Mississippi and the valley of the Minnesota river 
was extinguished, and this vast tract open to settlement. At a very early day 
Minnesota took the subject of common schools in hand, and the first report of 
a Superintendent of Public Instruction was presented to the third Legislative 
Assembly, which met in January, 1852. 

From this time forward immigration flowed into Minnesota at high tide, and 
the State filled up with unprecedented rapidity. Villages and towns sprang up 
as if by magic. Land speculation ran high, and during the period of the greatest 
inflation of prices, the financial crash of 1857 fell like a thunderbolt. Great 
distress and stagnation of business was the direct result, and for a year or two 
the rapid growth of the State was arrested. But the remoter consequences of 
the crash were permanently beneficial to the State. Towns had sprung up like 
mushrooms without sufficient tributary agricultural districts to support them. 
Rent and living were ruinously high. After the crash, the speculator's occupa- 
tion was gone ; the energies of the inhabitants were directed to manufactures 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 7 

•and agricultare — the basis of all true State or National prosperity. Previous 
to that era. ':>readstuffd had been imported; in 1354 the number of plowed acres 
in the State was only 15,000 ; in 1860, there were 433,276, and in 1866 fully 
ooe million acres. Minnesota was suddenly developed as one of the finest grain 
growing States in the Union, and in 1865 exported upwards of eight millioQ 
bushels of wheat, and in 1866, over ten million bushels. 

Admitted into the Union. — The State Constitution was framed by a conventioa 
elected for that purpose, which assembled at St. Paul in July, 1857, and it was 
voted upon ana adopted the ensuing October. The State was admitted into 
the Union in May, 1858, and the State government organized. In 1861, when 
the rebellion broke out, our State promptly responded to all the calls made on 
her for men and money, though at a greater detriment to her growth and pros- 
perity, perhaps, than that of any other State. Being a new State, she had no 
surplus population, and her quotes were taken from her grain fields, workshops 
and pineries. With a population of about 175,000 at the beginning of the 
•war, she furnished about 24,000 men to the Union armies. Few States have 
such a record. 

The Indian Massacre. — In August, 1862, one of the most fiendish and wide- 
spread massacres recorded in American history took place upon the western 
frontier of Minnesota by the Dakota or Sioux Indians. A large military force, 
commanded by Gren. Sibley, was at once sent out, which soon laid waste the 
whole Indian country belonging to these tribes, killed " Little Crow," their leader, 
■and utterly routed and subdued their braves. A large number were captured ; 
some of them' tried and sentenced to death — of these 38 were hung, and the 
others with their entire tribes, were, under the order of the General Government, 
sent clean out of the country to a reservation beyond the Missouri river. 

Remarkable Progress of the State. — It wrll thus be seen that Minnesota has 
had extraordinary obstacles to overcome. The financial panic of 1857, the 
rebellion of 1861, and Indian war of 1862, have undoubtecfiy greatly retarded 
her growth ; yet, notwithstanding those drawbacks, she has grown more rapidly 
than any State in the Union. Her percentage of increase from 1860 to 1865 
•was 4oJ per cent, while tbat of Wisconsin was only 12, Illinois 27, Iowa 11, 
Michigan 7^. All danger from Indians has long since vanished ; perfect securi- 
ty reigns, and homes in the most remote parts of the State are as secure as thoae 
of New-England. In 1865 the population of the State was 250,000, an increase 
of 78,000 since 1860 ; the increase during the past year, 1866, is estimated at 
about 60,000. 

Government. — The State government is very similar to that of the other Western 
States. The constitution secures civil and religious rights to all ; immigrants 
of proper age are allowed to vote after a residence of four months, and foreign- 
ers secure very liberal terms of citizenship. 

The present State Officers are as follows : — William R Marshall, Governor; 
Thomas H. Armstrong, Lieutenant Governor ; Henry C. Rogers, Secretary 
of State ; Chas. McIlrath, Auditor ; Chas. Scheffbb, Treasurer ; Wm. Col- 
viLLE, Attorney General 

EXEMPTION LAWS OF MINNESOTA. 

Humane and Just Provisions. — Too much credit cannot be accorded the men 
of our Legislature for the wise and liberal provisions of our State Homestead 
and Exemption Law. When we recall for a moment the statutes of the older 
States in that barbarous age when an Exemption Law " of one hundred dollars/' 
and " imprisonment for debt " disgraced their law-books, and contemplate ihe 
succession of revulsions that we have seen sweeping over the land, prostrating 
the business and business men, the energetic, progressive, live men of our country 
almost in a night, themselves, and those dependent on Ihem, involved in one com- 
mon ruia, say whether I too much honor those men whose legislation comes 
up to the spirit of the age in which we live, who have placed upon the statutes 
of Minnesota a Homestead and Exemption Law more liberal than that of any 
other State! 



S Mn^T:sOTA r 

I quote from the statutes of 1866, page 498 : 

' That a homestead consisting of any quantity of land not exceeding eighty' 
acres and the dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, to be selected bv 
the owner thereof, and not included in any incorporated town, city or village, or 
instead thereof, at the option of the owner, a quantity of land not exceeding in 
amount one lot, being within an incorporated town, city or village, and the 
dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any resident 
of this State, shall not be subject to attachment, levy or sale, upon any execu- 
tioii or any other process issuing out of any court within this State." 

Thus it will be seen that we have no limitation as to the value of the farm or 
residence thus secured to the family. It may be worth one thousand or ten 
thousand dollars. Whatever it is, it remains the shelter, the castle, the home of 
the family, to cluster around its hearthstone in the hour of gloom and disaster, as 
securely as they were wont to do in the sunshine of prosperity. 

While there may be those who prefer an exemption by value rather than area, 
and urge that one so liberal as ours can be taken advantage of by knaves, it 
must be remembered that no general law can be framed for the protection of the 
helpless and unfortunate, that will not be sometimes taken advautaae of by 
others. We think it may be safely asserted that an exemption law such as ours, 
is found a blessing to thousands of worthy men, women and children for every 
ooe unworthily shielded by its provisions. 

Personal Property Exempted. — In addition to the home, there is also ex- 
empted a proportionately liberal amount of personal property, consisting of 
household furniture, library, horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, wagons, farming utensils, 
provisions, fuel, grain, &c., &c., and all the tools and instruments of any mechan- 
ic, and four hundred dollars' worth of stock in trade ; also the library and im- 
plements of any professional man. See State laws, page 489. 

UNITED STATES HOMESTEAD LAW. 

Large numbers are availing themselves of the liberal Homestead Law passed 
by Congress, and now in force. Minnesota possesses the only domain attractive 
to this class of settlers— having nearly forty million acres of public land yet 
open to entry and settlement. This law provides that each settler, in five years' 
occupation, becomes the owner of " 160 acres by paying the sum of ten dollars 
and the fees of the land ofiBcer, provided he be a citizen of the United States or 
has declared his intention to become such;" and it further provides that " «o 
land acquired under the provisions of this act shall in any event become liable 
to the satisfaction of any debts contracted prior to the issuance of the patent 
therefor." In view of the immense quantity of " broad acres " thus offered with- 
out cost, situated as they are all over this new State, in districts well watered 
and timbered, where the mails and express are now extended, and railroads and 
tel^raphs rapidly pushing their way, it is not surprising that thousands are' 
coming into Minnesota annually to secure good farms for themselves and their 
fanulies — farms that will, in a few short years, be in the midst of cultivated 
neighborhoods, with churches and school-houses arising at every hand, amid all 
the surroundings of civilization and progress. 

LAND orncES. 

The land ofi&ces for the several land districts of Minnesota are located at the 
following places : — St. Peter, Nicollet County ; (Jreenleaf, Meeker County ; 
Winnebago City, Faribault County ; St. Cloud, Stearns County ; Taylor's Falls, 
Chisago County ; Duluth, St. Louis County. 

DEMAND FOE LABOR IN THE WEST. 

It is said a yonng man recently wrote Mr. Greeley of the "Tribune," to obtain a situa- 
tion, and he replied that " New York is just entering upon the interesting process of starving 
out 200,000 people whom war and its coneequences has driven hither. It is impossible to 
employ more until these are gone." 

The journals of Eastern cities are annually filled wit^ complaints that there is 
a surplus of laborers and operatives in the East seeking work ; that the com- 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 9 

petition for employment is often such that workmen are willing to accept wages 
far below what is just to them and their families ; that the offices of European 
Consuls are beset with foreigners who have exhausted their means seeking em- 
ployment in the crowded Eastern cities. This does not and will not in a hundred 
years apply to the great West. Labor of all kinds, especially farm labor, must 
of necessity continue in demand here. Indeed one can scarcely imagine a con- 
dition of things in the West that will make it otherwise. Laborers and working 
men in almost every branch of industry are generally in scant supply and great 
demand throughout the West. Those lingering around the crowded seaports of 
the East with no hope beyond a mere subsistence, their families growing up in 
poverty and vice, having no chance with athers in the world, should turn their 
attention to the great West, where a free homestead, rich lands, education for 
their children, and a healthy climate invites them. Our pineries alone, give em- 
ployment to over 3,000 men, to say nothing of other branches of the lumber 
interest, and our numerous raih-oads now under construction. 

PHYSICAL CHAKACTERISTICS OF THE STATE. 

Physical Districts. — The physical characteristics of a country exert an im- 
portant influence on its inhabitants. "Grand scenery, leaping waters, and a 
bracing atmosphere," — says Neill in his History of Minnesota, — "produce men 
of different cast from those who dwell where the land is on a dead level, and 
where the streams are all sluggards. We associate heroes like Tell and Bruce 
with the mountains of Switzerland and the highlands of Scotland." Although 
Minnesota is not a mountainous country by any means, its general elevation gives- 
it all the advantages of one, without its objectionable features. Being equi- 
distant from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, situated on an elevated plateau, 
and with a system of lakes and rivers ample for an empire, it has a peculiar 
climate of its own, possessed by no other State. 

The general surface of the' greater part of the State is even and undulating, 
and pleasantly diversified with rolling praii'ies, vast belts of timber, oak openings, 
numerous lakes and streams, with their accompanying meadows, waterfalls, wood- 
ed ravines and lofty bluffs, which impart variety, grandeur and picturesque beauty 
to its scenery. 

The State may be divided into three principal districts. In the northern and 
western part of the State an exception to its general evenness of surface occurs 
in an elevated district which may be termed the highlands of Minnesota. This 
district, resting on primary rocks, is of comparatively small extent — 1(5,000^ 
square miles — and covered with a dense growth of pine, fir, spruce, &c.; it has 
an elevation of about 450 feet above the general level of the country, and is 
covered with hills of diluvial sand and drift, from 85 to 100 feet in height, among 
which the three great rivers of the American Continent — the Mississippi, 
St Lawrence, and Red River — take their rise. The temperature of this district 
is from 5 to 8 degrees lower than that of the rest of the State ; although pos- 
seesing some good land, its principle value consists in its immense forests and its 
rich mineral deposits of copper, iron and the precious metals. 

The valley af the Red River forms another district larger than the highlands, 
containing 18,000 square miles, with a deep, black soil composed of alluvial 
mould, and rich in organic deposits. This district produces the heaviest crops 
of grain, especially wheat, of any section in the United States. It has a sub- 
soil of clay, is but sparsely timbered, with but few rivers or lakes, and is not 
therefore so well drained as other parts of the State. 

The Mississippi valley comprises the third district; it contains about 50,000 
square miles, or about three-fifths of the whole State. It is the " garden spot " 
of the Northwest, and comprises one of the finest agricultural districts in the 
world. Its general charactei istics are those of a rolling prairie region, resting 
on secondary rocks ; it is unusually well drained, both by the nature of the soil, 
which is a warm, dark calcareous and sandy loam, and the innumerable lakes and 
streams which cover its surface with a perfect network. It is dotted by numer- 
ous and extensive grovei and belts of timber. These main districts are also 



10 MINNESOTA : 

subdivided into smaller ones by the valleys of the numerous streams which in- 
tersect them; but space does not admit of a detailed description. 

Rivers and Streams. — The Mississippi river, 2,400 miles long, which drains a 
larger region of country than any stream on the globe, with the exception of the 
Amazon, rises in Lake Itasca, in the northern part of Minnesota, and flows 
southeasterly through the State 797 miles, 134 of which forma its eastern boun- 
dary. It is navigable for large boats to St Paul, and above the Falls of St. 
Anthony for smaller boats for about 150 miles farther. The season of navigation 
has opened as early as the 2.5th of March, but usually opens from the first to the 
middle of .April, and closes between the middle of November and the first of De- 
cember. In 186.5 and 1866, steamboat excursions took place on the first of 
December, from St Paul, and the river remained open several days longer. The 
principal towns and cities on the Mississippi in Minnesota, are, Winona, 
VVabashaw, Lake City, Red Wing, Hastings, St Paul, Minneapolis, St Anthony, 
Anoka, Dayton, Monticello, St Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Little Falls, Watab. 

The Minnesota River, the source of which is among the Coteau des Prairies, 
in Dacotah Territory, flows from Big Stone Lake, on the western boundary of the , 
State, a distance of nearly 500 miles, through the heart of the southwestern part 
«f the State, and empties into the Mississippi at Fort Snelling, 5 miles above St. 
Paul. It is navigable as high up as the Yellow Medicine, 238 miles above its 
mouth, during good stages of water. Its principal places are Shakopee, Chaska, 
Carver, Belle Plaine, Henderson, LeSueur, Traverse des Sioux, St. Peter, Man- 
kato and New TJlm. 

The St, Croix River, rising in Wisconsin, near Lake Superior, forms about 
130 miles of the eastern boundary of the State. It empties into the Mississippi 
nearly opposite Hastings, and is navigable to Taylor's Falls, about 50 miles. It 
penetrates the pineries and furnishes immense water power along its course. The 
principal places on it are Stillwater and Taylor's Falls. 

The Red River, rises in Lake Traverse, and flows northward, forming the 
western boundary of the State from Big Stone Lake to the British Possessions, 
a distance of 380 miles. It is navigable from Breckenridge, at the mouth of the 
Bois de Sioux River to Hudson's Bay ; the Saskatchewan, a tributary of the 
Red River, is also said to be a navigable stream, thus promising an active com- 
mercial trade from this vast region when it shall have become settled up, via ihe 
St. Paul and Pacific railroad, which connects the navigable waters of the Red 
River with those of the Mississippi. 

Cannon River, dividing Dakota and Goodhue counties, it is said can be made 
a navigable stream by slack-water improvements, for which purpose a company 
with a capital of 650,000 has been formed. 

Among the more important of the numerous small streams are Rum River, 
valuable for lumbering ; Vermilion River, furnishing extensive water power and 
possessing some of the finest cascades in the United States ; the Crow, Blue 
Earth, Root, Sauk, Le Sueur, Zumbro, Cottonwood, Long Prairie, Red Wood, 
Waraju, Pejuta Ziza, Mauja Waken, Buffalo, Wild Rice, Plum, Sand Hill, Clear 
Water, Red Lake, Thief, Black, Red Cedar, and Des Moines rivers ; the gt. 
Louis River, a large stream flowing into Lake Superior, navigable for twenty- 
one miles from its lake outlet, and furnishing a water-power at its falls said to be 
equal to that of the falls of the Mississippi at St. Anthony, and many others, 
besides all the innumerable hosts of first and secondary tributaries to all the 
larger streams. The sources of most of these streams being high, their descent 
is considerable, furnishing the finest system of water-powers of every grade in 
the world. Many of the brooks, with deep cut channels, are full of trout, leap 
and dance merrily over the prairies, often taking sudden leaps, forming beautiful 
and romantic cascades. One of these, on the outlet of Lake Minnetouka, has 
been immortalized by Longfellow in Hiawatha : 

" Here the Fulls of Mtnne-ha-ha 
; Flash and gleam among the oak trees, 
Laugh and leap into the valley." 

Lakes. — Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water on the globe, forms a 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 11 

portion of the eastern boundary of Minnesota, giving it 167 miles of lake 
coast, with one of the best natural harbors and breakwaters, at Du Luth, M inne- 
60ta, to be found on any coast. When the Superior and Mississippi railroad 
is completed, connecting the commercial centre of the State with Lake Superior, 
3 large lake commerce will spring into existence. 

Besides, the whole surface of the State is literally begemmed with innnumera- 
ble lakes, estimated by Schoolcraft at 10,000. They are of all sizes, from 500 
yards in diameter to 10 miles. Their picturesque beauty and loveliness, with 
their pebbly bottoms, transparent waters, wooded shores and sylvan associations, 
must be seen to be fully appreciated. They all abound in fish, black and rock 
bass, pickerel, pike, perch, cat, sunfish, &c., of superior quality and flavor ; and 
in the spring and fall they are the haunts of innumerable duck, geese, and other 
wild fowl. In some places they are solitary, at others found in groups or chains. 
Many are without outlets, others give rise to meandering and meadow-bordered 
brooks. These lakes act as reservoirs for water, penetrating the soil and by 
their exhalhations giving rise to summer showers during dry weather. Prof. 
Maury says of Minnesoto, that although far from the sea, "it may be considered 
the best watered State in the Union, and it doubtless owes its aboundance of 
summer rains measurably to this lake system." 

Forests. — Among those unacquainted with the State, Minnesota is apt to be 
regarded as a prairie country, destitute of timber. On the contrary, there is no 
Western State better supplied with forests. 

In the northren part of the State is an immense forest region estimated to 
cover upwards of 21,000 square miles, constituting one of the great sources of 
health and industry of the State. The prevailing wood of this region is pine, 
with a considerable proportion of ash, birch, maple, elm, poplar, &c. West of 
the Mississippi, lying between it and the Minnesata, and extending south of that 
stream, is the Big Woods, about 100 miles in length and 40 miles wide. This 
district is full of lakes, and broken by small openings. The prevailing woods 
are oak, maple, elm, ash, basswood, butternut, black walnut and hickory, Be- 
sides these two large forests, nearly all the streams are fringed with woodland, 
and dense forests of considerable extent cover the valleys. The extensive bot- 
toms of the Mississippi, Minnesota and Blue Earth are covered with a heavy 
growth of white and black walnut, maple, boxwood, hickory, linden and cotton- 
wood. The valleys of the Zumbro and Root rivers support large tracts of for- 
ests growth. They are found more or less in Wabashaw, Dodge, Steele, Fill- 
more, Mower, Freeborn and Olmsted and contiguous counties. 

But the oak openings, distributed in groves and large parks through the \\p- 
lands along the margins of the numerous streams, from a large resource of the 
prairie population for domestic and mechanical purposes. Towards the western 
boundary of the State the timber becomes more scanty, and it assumes more the 
character of a vast prairie region, dotted here and there with groves and be te 
of timber, fringing the Red River and the minor streams. The choice timbered 
lands and oak openings wiU be first selected by the settler, and the treeless prai- 
ries of the western frontier will be covered with timber in a few years, as soon 
as the annual scourge of the prairie fire is checked. Wherever these fires are 
arrested the land is soon covered by a dense growth of timber. 

THE PIOTERrES A^T) LUMBERING INTEREST. 

The vast pine forests cover the northern part of the State, extending from 
Lake Superior to the outlet of Red Lake, and extending as far south as latitude 
46° in Anoka county. The principal pineries where lumber is obtained are sit- 
uated upon the headwaters of the Upper Mississippi, and those of the St. Croix, 
Kettle, Snake, Rum, Crow Wing and Otter Tail rivers. The logs are cut in the 
dead of winter, and when the ground is covered with snow are conveyed to the 
streams, down which thoy are floated in the spring when the snow and ice melts. 
These pine forests being almost inexhaustible, constitute a vast source of wealth 
for generations to come. They give employment to a large number of lumber- 
men, who constitute a hardy class of industry as distinct as that of railroad or 
steamboatmen. 



12 MINNESOTA : 

In 1861, the exports of lumber from this State were about 30,000,000 feet. 
This trade is constantly increasing ; in 1865 upwards of 83,000,000 feet were 
manufactured at St. Anthony and St Croix Falls, besides 15,500,000 shingles, 
and 16,500,000 laths. The products of 111,000,000 logs, of an aggregate value 
of $1,662,810 were exported. In 1866, the amount of logs and lumber cut and 
manufactured was about 175,000,000 feet. 

MINTERAL EESOUHCES. 

Copper and Iron. — The mineral deposits of Minnesota are another important 
source of wealth. In the northern part of the State copper and iron ore of 
superior quality are found. The copper mines are situated on the northern shore 
of Lake Superior, and are rich and extensive. Yery pure specimens of copper 
ore have also been obtained from Stuart and Knife rivers. Thick deposits of 
iron ore are found on Portage and Pigeon rivers, said to be equal in tenacity 
and malleability to the best Swedish and Russia iron. ^ 

Coal. — Deposits of coal have been discovered on the Big Cottonwood river, 
a tributary of the Minnesota, and indications of it have been observed in other 
localities. A company has been formed to work the Cottonwood veins, and 
some geologists are confident that rich beds will yet be developed. We are not 
dependent upon this source, however ; our proximity to the immense coal fields 
of Iowa, connected by railroads now under construction ; and our own inex- 
haustible deposits of peat, proved by experiments referred to under the head 
of " Peat for fuel," to be almost equal to coal, will afibrd us for the future an 
ample and cheap supply of fuel for domestic and manufacturing purposes. 

The Precious Metals. — " A geological survey, made under the auspices of 
the State in the summer of 1865, developed the existence of the precious metals 
on the shores of Vei-milion Lake, 80 miles north of the head of Lake Superior. 
Scientific analysis attested the presence of gold and silver, in the quartz surface 
rock, in sufficient quantities to warrant the etoployment of labor and capital in 
their extraction, for which object a number of joint stock companies have been 
formed and a considerable number of enterprising persons provided with neces- 
sary appliances for mining, have repaired to that place in search of gold. There 
is good reason to believe the search will be successful." — H. C. Rogers, Com- 
missioner of Emigration. 

But the richest mines of wealth belonging to any State is a productive soil, 
and in this Minnesota is unequalled. There is a mine of gold on every fann of 
160 acres, and it requires no capital to work it except industry. 

Granite. — A fine bed of granite, equal to the best Quincy granite for building 
purposes, crops out at Sauk Rapids, 

Limestone of fine quality for building purposes is found in many portions of 
the State, (in fact nearly all over it,) and afi'ords ample material for the manufac- 
ture of lime. 

Sandstone exists at Fort Snelling, Mendota, and other points in inexhaustible 
quantities. A fine white sand for the manufactui-e of flint glass abounds near 
St. Paul, said to be equal to any in the world. An extensive quarry of slate 
stone is found on the Saint Louis River, and probably exists at other points. A 
kind of blue clay, underlying the soil in a larg-e part of the State makes brick of 
a good quality. White marl occurs in large beds at Minneapolis, St. Anthony 
and other places ; it is used for pottery manufacturing, and also makes a hard 
durable brick similar to the famous " Milwaukee brick." In Wabashaw county 
a bed of the finest porcelain clay has been found. 

Salt Springs. — Numerous very pure salt springs, yielding upwards of a 
bushel of salt to every twenty-four gallons of water, abound in the Red River 
valley The northwest, which consumes vast quantities of salt for pork and beef 
packing, and other purposes, will eventually be supplied from this source. The 
value of this source of wealth may be estimated from the fact that two million 
bushels are annually imported into Chicago alone, from New York and Penn- 
sylvania. 

Tripoli. — An inexhaustible bed of the purest Tripoli, requiring, according to 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 13 

Prof. Shepard, no preparation to be fit at once for use and commercp, has been 
discovered near Stillwater. It is twenty feet thick and at least a half mile long. 

" The use of Tripolis in the arts is very great. Wherever a high polish is 
required, whether upon metal, stone, glass, or even wood, their employment is 
perfectly indispensable, and in very considerable quantities. 1 he consumption 
is constantly increasing ; and the demand for the article is destined to know no 
limit." — Report of Prof. Shepard. 

Tripoli is a deposit of the silicified remains of animalcules, and contains from 
C6 to 90 per cent, of silex ; that discovered in Minnesota contains 77.7 per cent, 
of silex, the remainder being principally lime, iron, and alumina. As the known 
deposits of this earth are rather limited, and the imported article, in no way 
superior to that of Minnesota, commands from 25 to 30 cents per pound in New 
York, at wholesale, this discovery will increase in importance every year. A 
company for the purpose of mining Tripoli and preparing it for commerce is 
now in successful operation. 

PEAT FOR FUEL. 

In a northern country a ready and cheap supply of fuel is of the first impor- 
tance. If any have imagined Minnesota to be a cold, timberless region, let them 
be at once undeceived. Our pineries are sufficient to supply the whole country 
with lumber, while throughout the State, the proportion of timbered lands and 
prairies is about what it should be to make it a good farming and stock growing 
country. Besides nature has made up whatever deficiency there maybe of wood 
and coal with immense and inexhaustible deposits of Peat, a cheap and excel- 
lent substitute for both, for ordinary use and manufacturing purposes. Peat is a 
deposit of vegetable matter, principally from a kind of moss, which has collected 
for ages in fens and bogs. Vast beds of this material, from twenty to fifty feet 
deep exists all over the State, requiring only to be cut out in square lumps with 
a light spade and dried. It Ijurns slowly, and gives off a great quantity of heat 
It rs identical with the "turf" taken from the peat bogs of Ireland and Scot- 
land, and so extensively used in those countries. For ordinary heating and 
cooking purposes, it is simply cut out in brick-shaped pieces, of any size desired, 
and spread around to dry. When dried, it ia carted and piled up under a shed 
so as to keep dry for use. 

Peat is compressed by machinery lately invented for that purpose, until almost 
as solid as stonecoal and nearly equal to it for heating purposes, and superior to 
wood. Peat is now used instead of wood or coal on the Grand Trunk and 
Great Western Railroads of Canada. By a test of the heating properties of peat 
as compared with coal and wood made by the Boston and Worcester Railroad, in 
August 1866, it was demonstrated that 3 J tons of peat at $4.50, per ton, 
worth $15.75, was equal to 4.41 cords of wood, worth $30.87 at $7 per cord, awl 
to 2.95 tons coal, worth ^29.50 at SlO per ton. A company was incorporated in 
St. Paul during the summer of 1866 for the manufacture of peat. They have 
brought on machinery for that purpose and are now in full blast on one of the 
large peat beds near the city. They assure us that they can furnish peat at $3 
per ton, each ton being equal to 1^ cords wood. 

MIKNIESOTA AS A STOCK-GROWING STATE. 

For raising cattle and horses, Minnesota is fully equal to Illinois ; and for 
E'heep growing it is far superior. According to established laws of nature cold 
climates require a large quantity and finer quality of wool or fur than warm 
ones, hence the fur and wool bearing auimals are found in perfection only in 
northern regions. The thick coat of the sheep especially identifies it with a 
cold country ; the excessive heat to which their wool subjects them in a warm 
climate generates disease. The fleece of Minnesota sheep is remarkably fiue and 
heavy, and they are not subject to the rot and other diseases so disastrous to 
sheep in warm and moist locaHtie^J. It is asserted by stock growers that sheep 
brought here while suffering with the rot speedily become healthy, and the 
same has been said of horses with heaves and shortness of breath. The sle«k 



14 , MINNESOTA : 

and velvety appearance of horses here in summer time gives them the appear- 
ance of highly kept stallions. The cattle raised here are also remarkably 
healthy, the unanimous testimony of butchers being that they seldom meet with 
a diseased liver. 

Our fine, rich upland meadows afford excellent facilities for grazing purposes; 
and hay in abundance for keeping stock during the winter may be had for the 
reaping. The characteristic perfection and nutritious qualities of the grasses in 
this State enables the farmer to keep his horses and cattle fat on it all winter 
without grain. The valleys and margins of the numerous streams and lakes, 
found on almost every farm, furnish au abundance of a c jarser grass than that 
obtained from the upland meadows ; this is generally fed to cattle, which are 
very fond of it both in its green and cured state. 

Although the winters in Minnesota are apparently longer, the actual number 
of days during which stock has to be fed here is no more than in Ohio and 
Southern Illinois. 

Hogs also do extremely well here, and the abundance and certainty of the 
grain crop enables farmers to raise them as cheaply as elsewhere. 

All stock requires shelter during the winter in this climate, but the necessity is 
no greater than in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. The washing, chilling and debil- 
itating winter rains of those States are far more injnrioas to out stock than 
our severest cold. All the shelter which stock requires here is that readily 
furnished by the immense straw piles which accumulate from the threshing of 
the annual grain crop. A frame-work of rails or poles is made, and the straw 
thrown over it, leaving the south side open. Under this cattle stand, feed on the 
straw in perfect security from the inclemencies of the severest winter. 

SOCIAL STATUS. 

The condition of society in all newly settled countries is a subject of 
interest to the settler. As a general thing the social status, in point of educa- 
tion, morals and refinement, is inferior to that of the older States. But in Min- 
nesota, although outside the capital and its other principal cities we do not boast 
much artificial refinement, the morals of the community, as shown by our crim- 
inal statistics, are at least equal to those of the model States of New-England. 

The society throughout the State is good ; no prim and retired New-Eggland 
village could outvie our young and thriving cities with their cleanly, decorous 
and whitewashed appearance. The population is composed mainly of American, 
Irish and Germans, but almost every nationality is represented. Most of the 
settlers are plain, honest, industrious farmers, attracted to our State by the salu- 
brity of its climate, and the productiveness and cheapness of its lands. A large 
proportion of the population is made up of the best classes from the older States, 
North and South, who have come to reap the advantages of our fine climate, or 
to invest their means in property in our fine agricultural districts and in our rap- 
idly growing towns, where immense fortunes have been reahzed by their rapid 
and solid growth. 

We rarely see here any of that rufiBaoism and lawlessness which in most ne'w 
States renders them unpleasant as a permanent residence. It would be as difiS- 
cult to find a township without its " meeting house" and school house as in Ohio 
or Pennsylvania. The various religious denominations are proportioned among 
the population in about the same ratio as in the older States. 

The following table, from the Bureau of Statistics, exhibits the ratio of crime 
in several States as compared with Minnesota : 

State. No. of Indictment*. No. of Convictions. EaUo of CoDyictioDS, 

Ohio, - - 3,571 1,234 1 in 1,950 

Massachusetts, - 4,248 1,295 1 in 841 

New-York, - 1,842 1 in 1,900 

Minnesota, - - 122 44 1 in 3,854 

"The comparison is remarkably favorable to Minnesota, but might have besB 
expected in a population chiefly agricultural." 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 15 

EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS. 

Minnesota took the subject of education in hand at an early stage of her set- 
tlement, and she may now justly boast of possessing the most munificent endow- 
ment for educational purposes of any Stat« in the Union. Two sections of land, 
1,280 acres, in every township, are set apart for sale or lease in aid of common 
schools, amounting in all to two and a half million acres. 

The Superintendent of Public Instruction in his Report for 1864 says : 

'•The rapid increase of the current school fund accruing from the interest 
on the principal arising from the sales of school lands, forms a subject as well of 
surprise as gratification. The balance in the treasury subject to distribution at 
the coming February apportionment is $27,999.28. Amount of interest on per- 
manent fund for 1864, $38,640.00. Estimated receipts from other soui-ces, $8- 
360.72. Making a grand total for the fiscal year ending in December, 1864, of 
§75,000.00. 

"The amount per capita at the last apportionment "was 23 cents. At the en- 
suing apportionment it will amount to 45 cents at least, and during the fiscal 
year, to $1.15 ; and this, notwithstaning the fact that the number of persons 
i-eported between the ages of five and twenty-one years, exceeds that of last 
year by upwards of 14,oX'0. Taking the number of scholars reported the cur- 
rent year as a basis of di\4sion, and the showing is $1.94J to each, a sum which 
would maintain a respectable school three mouths in the year, tcithout additional 
aid, paying in a school of 50 scholars a male teacher $32 per month, and in a 
school of 75 scholars, an additional fomale teacher $16. 

"This exhibit springs from an experiment of but two years of sales, and in- 
volves the disposal of 90,440 acres of land only, being little more than one- 
fourteenth of the whole number of surveyed school lands in the State. 

"Supposing the balance of these lands to be sold at the minimum price of 
$5 per acre, and we have a total, the interest on which at 7 per ceat., (the legal 
interest in this State,) would produce an annual school fund of nearly half a 
million dollars. The lands unsurveyed are left out of the account." 

In a communication published by the Auditor of State Nov. 21, 1866, he 
states that the permanent school fund of the Stiite is now $1,348,862.55. No 
just conception, he says, can be formed of its ultimate extent. It is now over a 
million of dollars, and not much over one-twentieth of the lands have been dis- 
posed of With the lands sold and unsold we have a school fund equivalent to 
twenty million dollars already. 

Another land grant of 46,080 acres has been made for the endowment of a 
State University. It has been located at St. Anthony and a fine stone edifice 
erected for this purpose. Some pecuniary difBculties have formerly surrounded 
the Board of Regents, but I am credibly informed that they are now nearly set- 
tled, and the school will soon go into operation, affordiHg facilities for every 
youth in the State to obtain a free collegiate education. 

Private enterprise has also located many excellent private schools, classical 
and commercial, and seminaries in different portions of the State, thus afibrdiug 
educational facilities equal to those of the older States. The Baptists have a 
University at Hastings and the Methodists have one at Red Wing. The St. Paul 
Female Seminary at St Paul, under the superintendence of Rev. J. G. Riheldaffer, 
and Bishop Seabury's Mission at Fairbault, under the patronage of the Episco- 
palians, and embracing a preparatory and collegiate department, are all institu- 
tioes of a high order of merit 

Bryant, Stratton & Pirkey's Commercial College at St Paul is equal to any 
of the links in this great chain of business colleges, also a Commercial CoJlege 
at Minneapolis. 

There is olso an excellent State Normal School for the training of teachers in 
practical operation at Winona. In addition the State has a Congressional grant 
of 120,000 acres of land for the establishment of a first class Agricultural 
College which is to be erected at Glencoe, and put in operation in a short time. 

An excellent Female Seminary, under the auspices of the CahoHcs, and con- 
ducted by the "Sisters of St Joseph," in operation at St. Paul. 



16 MINNESOTA: 

And a College will sooq be opened at Northfield under the auspices of the 
Congregationalists. 

CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 

Minnesota, although as yet too young to have a system of the noble public 
charities perfected, her wants in this line are provided for as soon as felt An 
Asylum for the deaf, dumb and blind is in operation at Faribault ; ample land 
grants have been made for the erection of an Insane Asylum, as well as for the 
support and education of the orphans of soldiers who fell in the late war. The 
Insane Asylum has been located at St. Peter, and is now in practical operation 
and ready for the reception of patients. The institution contains about forty 
patients at this time. There are two Orphan Asylums in St. Paul, one under the 
auspices of the Protestants, the other of the Catholics. 

BANKS. 

On the first Monday in October, 1866, there were fifteen National Banks 
doing business in the State, with an aggregate paid in capital of $1,650,000, and 
an aggregate circulation of $1,474,613, which is at a uniform par value through- 
out the United States, thus affording good and ample currency for the business 
purposes of the State. 

EIVER TRADE — STEAMBOATS AND BARGES. 

The steamboat business of Minnesota, is as yet confined to the Mississippi, 
the Minnesota and the St. Croix rivers. On the Mississippi the business is 
principally done by the " North Western Union Packet Company," the " North- 
ern Line," and the " Savannah Packet Company," although a large number of 
independent or " wild " boats, as they are called, engage in our trade. 

The North Western Union Packet Company, being a union of the " Davidson 
Line " and the Minnesota Packet Company, has within a few years grown to a 
large and influential company, starting, it is said with a " Line " consisting of ane 
boat, they now own eleven first class packets, nineteen stem wheel steamers, 
together with one hundred and thirty-one barges, and employ over 2000 men. 
The capital stock of this company is $1,500,000. Their boats ply between Du- 
buque and St Paul, and LaCrosse and St Paul ; two boats leaving St. Paul 
daily, connecting with the 111. Central R.R. at Dubuque, Milwaukee R.R. at 
Prairie du Chien and LaCrosse. This line also has boats on the St. Croix, one 
boat daily to Taylor's Falls, and on the Minnesota a daily packet besides several 
freighters. 

The Northern Line boats ply between St. Louis and St Paul, and consist of 
nine first-class side-wheel packets, eight stern-wheel steamers, and sixty barges, 
— a boat leaving St Louis and St Paul daily. I am unable to give statements 
of the boats and arrangements of the Savannah Packet Company, plying be- 
tween Savannah and St Paul. 

The Collector of Customs at the Port of St Paul, gives the aggregate ton- 
nage of that port for 1866, at 10,647.37 pounds, which falls far short of the 
actual amount because of a large number of the boats being registered at Du- 
buque and Galena. Were the boats and barges plying to the Port of St. Paul 
all registered there, the tonnage would double the amount given above. 

THE RAILROAD SYSTEM OE MINNESOTA. 

In 1857, Congress made a land grant of four and a half million acres to Min- 
nesota for railroad purposes. In 1864, an additional grant was made. 

These acts grant ten sections, or 6,400 acres of land for each mile of road to 
be built under it, and projected the great lines which were intended to benefit all 
parts of the State, and provide for its increasing demands. These lines are as 
follows : 

FIRST DIVISION ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC R. R. CO. 

Ist. — From Stillwater, via St Paul and St Anthony to a point on the western 
boundary of the State, near or at Big Stone Lake. This line passes through the 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 17 

centre of the State, and extends from the eastern to the western boundary. It 
is about 220 miles Ion?. From Stillwater to St. Paul the line is under the con- 
trol of the Stillwater & St. Paul R,R. Co., and no effort has yet been made to 
secure its construction. The distance is but 18 miles, and as the early comple- 
tion of the road is demanded by the constantly increasins: traffic betwen the St. 
Croix valley and the commercial centre of the State, it will not be long delayed. 

From St. Paul to the western boundary of the State, this line is controlled by 
the First Division of the St. Paul & Pacific R. R. Co. The road has been 
located, and is completed and in operation from St. Paul to St. Anthony, ten 
miles. It has been graded to Lake Minnetouka, fifteen miles west of St. An- 
thony, and a large force is employed for the whole of this winter (186G-7) in 
pushing the construction of, the line westward. An expensive bridge over the 
Mississippi river, just above the Falls of St. Anthony is under contract to be 
finished by the middle of April, 18G7. The iron for CO miles has been purchased, 
and the company expects to complete the road that distance before the close of 
the year 1867. 

2d. — A branch line from the road above mentioned, starting from St. Anthony, 
thence via St. Cloud and Crow Wing to Pembina, on the great Red River of 
the North, in Dacotah Territory, a distance of 400 miles. 

From St. Anthony to Wataij, 70 miles, this line is owned and contolled by 
the Firt Division of the St. Paul &: Pacific R. R. Co. It is finished and in 
operation to St. Cloud, 76 miles from St. Paul, and will be completed to Watab 
during the year 1867. 

ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC R. R. CO. 

The balance of this branch line belongs to the St Paul & Pacific R. R. Co. 
It has been located as far as Crow Wing, but is not as yet under construction. 

3d. — A line from some point between St. Cloud and Crow VV^ing to Lake Su- 
perior, a distance of 120 miles. This line is controlled by the St. Paul & Pa- 
cific R. R. Co ., and operations have not yet been commenced thereon. 

THE MINNESOTA VALLEY R. R. CO. 

4th. — A line from St Paul up the Valley of the Minnesota river to Mankato, 
thence in a southwesterly direction to the Iowa State line ; there to meet a road 
from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Minnesota State line. Sioux City is the north- 
eastern terminus of a branch of the Central or Union Pacific Railroad. 

The "Valley" road is under the control of the Minnesota Valley R. R. Co. 
The distance from St Paul +o the Iowa State line is 170 miles ; from thence 
to Sioux City, 70 miles. The road is completed and in operation from St. Paul 
to Relle Plaine, 50 miles, and will be finished 40 miles farther to Mankato, 
during the year 1867. 

THE MINNESOTA CENTRAL R. R. CO. 

5th. — A line from St Paul and Minneapolis, (junction atJMendota,) via Fari- 
bault and Owatonna to the north line of the State of Iowa. This line runs almost 
due north and south ; it is controlled by the Minnesota Central R. R. Co. ; it is 
about 110 miles long and is completed to Owatonna, about 70 miles, where it 
intersects the Winona & St Peter R. R. 

Arrangements are being made to complete this line during the year 1867, to a 
junction with the McGregor Western Railway of Iowa ; thus giving us all-rail 
connection east and south via Prairie du Chien. 

THE WINONA AND ST. PETER R. R. CO. 

6th. — A line from Winona, via St Peter, to the western boundary of the State. 

This line runs east and west across the entire State ; it is completed to Owa- 
tonna, 90 miles west of Winona, and will be finished to the Minnesota river, 
140 miles, during the year 1867. The line, when completed, will be upwards of 
260 miles long. It intersects the Minnesota Central at Owatonna. 

THE SOUTHERN MINNESOTA R. R. CO. 

7th. — A line from La Crescent up the valley of the Root River, through the 
counties of Houston, Fillmore, Mower, Freeborn, FaribauU, Martin, Jackson, 
Noble, and Rock, to the western boundary of the State. 

2 



18 MIISTNESOTA : 

This line is controlled by the Southern Minnesota R. R. Co., is completed to 
Rushford, Fillmore county, about 30 miles west of the Mississippi, and is being 
energetically pushed forward. It crosses the entire State, from east to west, 
through the southern tier of counties, and is upwards of 250 miles long. 

HASTINGS AND DAKOTA R. R. 

8th. — A line from Hastings, through the counties of Dakota, Scott, Carver, 
and McLeod to such point on the western boundary of the State as the Legisla- 
ture may determine. This grant was made during the past summer, and 
has since passed into the control of an active company. It is another east and 
west line across the State. 

LAKE SUPERIOR AND MISSISSIPPI R. R. CO. 

9th. — A line from St. Paul, which is the head of navigation on the Mississippi 
river, to the head of Lake Superior in Minnesota, with authority to connect 
with a branch to Superior City, Wisconsin. The distance to the navigable 
waters of Lake Superior is 133 miles ; to the head of Lake Superior, 150 miles. 
This line is controlled by the Lake Superior and Mississippi R. R. Co. It has 
been graded about 30 miles from St. Paul, and will be pushed to completion the 
entire distance within three years, or before 1870. This road has also a grant 
of seven sections to the mile of State lauds in addition to those named. 

NORTHERN PACIFIC R. R. CO. 

10th. — A Mne (not yet located) crossing the entire State from east to west, 
north of the 45° north latitude. 

All the roads named have been endowed by Congress with land grants of ten 
sections, or 6,400 acres per mile, with the exception of the Northern Pacific, 
which has a grant of 20 sections, or 12,800 acres per mile. 

ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC R. R., WINONA BRANCH. 

11th. — In addition to the lines named above, the State has granted to the St. 
Paul and Pacific R. R. Co., the right to build a road along the valley of the 
Mississippi river from St. Paul to the southern boundary of the State, and has 
endowed it with a valuable grant of State lands, amounting to 14 sections, or 
nearly 10,000 acres of land per mile. The line has been surveyed as far as Wi- 
nona, a distance of 100 miles ; ten miles of the grading has been completed, and 
the company are determined to build and equip the road with the least possible 
delay. 

THE m'gREGOR and WESTERN R. R. 

Although not of our land grant roads, is one of much importance to a portion 
of our citizens. It is completed from McGregor out about 80 miles, and within 
40 miles of Austin, Mower County, to which point it will be pushed rapidly as 
possible, there to connect with other roads. 

SUMMARY. 

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this system ©f railroads to 
the present and future population of the State. The construction of these lines 
now in active progress gives employmyjnt to vast numbers of men, and gives as- 
surance that every part of the State in the near future will enjoy the benefits of 
a cheap and speedy tmnsportation of passengers and products to and fro. And 
when completed, the system will give to the whole State every advantage, so far 
as markets are concerned, which now belonirs to the favored State of Illinois. 

These lines, covering over 2,000 miles wholly within the limits of the State, 
are rapidly opening up some of the best lands in the world, by bringing them 
within easy reach of good markets. The different railroad companies are pur- 
suing' a liberal policy towards immigrants offering them inducements as to price 
and time of payments, seeing that their own prosperity is identical with that of the 
State. St Paul may be said to form the heart or centre of this net-woik of the 
'arteries of trade." 

The great facility which Minnesota possesses of sending her produce to mar- 
ket is not the least of her many advantages. The richest lands and the finest 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 19 

'«liniat<3 in the world are useless in a commercial point of view if not connected 
■■with the great trading emporiums by wide and accessible channels of trade. The 
broad bosom of the Mississppi sweeps our commerce to the Gulf 'jf Mexico, 
and brings back the cotton of the South to be manufactured by our numberless 
water-powers ; our railroads open another channel to the Atlantic coast ; while by 
way of lake navigation, via Lake Superior and the great Pacific Railroad, con- 
necting us with both the Atlantic and Pacific, afford ample and unequalled com- 
mercial facilities. 

Navigation on Lake Superior opens the last of April an 1 closes about the 1st 
of December. In previous years propellers have left Buffalo as late as the 10th 
of December, in 1861 as late as the 21st 

'The navigation of Lake Superior, contrary to the general opinion, is much 
safer than that of the lower lakes. Its waters, being deeper, make easier seas, and 
-it is navigable as many days in the year as any of them. ■* ♦ * * 
It has been predicted by thinking men, who understand the subject, that when 
steam communication shall have been effected across the continent from the 
Pacific to the Atlantic, a change must take place in the courses of the commerce 
between the East and the West. When you can lay down in London and Hamburg 
cargoes of tea, silks, &c., from China, within fifty to sixty days after their ship- 
ment from there, then the old courses of trade by the way of the Cape of Good 
Hope wih have to be abandoned — then the commercial sceptre will depart from 
Eujiland and pass into our keeping. This all seems as sure as anything in the 
future can be." — Report of the Buffalo Board of Trade, for 1866. 

MANUFACTURING FACILITIES. 

Extract from the Second Report of J. A. Wheelock, State Commissioner of 
Statistics: — 

"Apart from social causes and the general influence of the stimulating and 
exacting climates of the North, in developing the forms of skilled industry, it is 
owing chiefly to two physical circumstances that New-Eenglaud has attained her 
present eminence in manufactures, in spite of her deficiency in the useful minerals 
and the raw material employed in the arts. These are, first, her abundant water 
power ; and, second, her favorable commercial position which has enabled her to 
obtain ready supplies of raw material from abroad and to distribute the product 
through a wide range of dependent markets. These circumstances alone among 
the physical conditions of manufacturing power, have raised the little State of 
Massachusetts, without internal resources of raw material, without coal or iron, to 
the first rank among American States in ihe manufacture especially of textile 
fabrics. And these purely physical conditions of industrial developement exi t in 
Minnesota in a greater degree than in New-England, and in addition she possesses 
to a large extent essential elements of raw material of which New-England is 
destitute. 

" 1. Minnesota possesses a more ample and effective water power than New- 
England. The falls and rapids of St. Anthony alone, with a total descent of 64 
feet, affords an available hydraulic capacity, according to an experienced and 
competent engineer, of 120,01)0 horse power. 'J'his is considerably greater than 
the whole motive power — steam and water— employed in textile manufactures 
iu England in 1850, and nearly seven times as great as the water power so 
employed. 

" That is to say, the available power created by this magnificent waterfall, is 
more than suBicient to drive all the 25,000,000 spindles and 4,000 mills of England 
and Scotland combined. The entire machinery of the English Manchester and 
the American Lowell, if they could be transplanted here, would scarcely press ■ 
upon its immense hydraulic capabilities, but as compared with those great 
industrial centres, the Falls of St Anthony possess one decisive advantage, which 
'is to a great extent illustrative of the functions of the State as a commercial and 
manufacturing emporium, this splendid cataract forms the terminus of coutiauous 
.navigation on the Mississippi ; and the same waters which lavish on the broken 
ledgoB of limestone a strength almost sullicieut to weave the gaimeuts of the 



20 BimNESOTA : 

world, may gather the products of its mills almost at their very doors and distribute' 
th€m to every part of the great valley of the Mississippi. 

" The St Croix Falls, which are only second to St. Anthony Falls in hydraulic 
power, are similarly, though somewhat less advantageously situated at the head 
of navigation upon a tributary ot the Mississippi. Except the Minnesota, nearly 
every tributary of the Mississippi, in its rapid and broken descent to the main 
stream, aSbrds valuable mill sites. The Mississippi itself in its descent from its 
Itasca summit to Fort Snejliug, in which it falls 836 feet, or over 16 inches per 
mile, is characterized by long steps of slack water, broken at long intervals by 
abrupt transitions in the character of the rocks which forms its bed, and forming a 
fine series of falls and rapids available for hydraulic works. Pokegoma Falls, 
Little Falls, Sauk Rapids, and St. Anthony Falls, are the chief of these. But the 
Elk, Rum, St. Croix, and numberless smaller streams on the east slope of the 
Mississispi, the Sauk, Crow, Vermillion, Cannon, Zumbro, Minneiska, Root, and 
their branches, nearly all the tributaries of the Minnesota, and a multitude of 
streams besides, in their abrupt descent over broken beds of limestone or sand- 
stone, through long and winding valleys or ravines, with a fall of from three to 
eight feet per mile, afford an unlimited abundance of available water power to 
nearly every county in the State. This diffusion of hydraulic power throughout 
the whole State, is a feature whose value as an element of developement, can 
scarcely be over estimated, as it gives to every neighborhood the means of 
manufacturing its own flour and lumber, and affords the basis of all those 
numerous local manufactures which enter into the industrial economy of every 
northern community. 

"2. Passing to the second point of comparison with New-England, already 
incidentally touched upon, the commercial position of Minnesota upon the termini 
of the three great water lines of the continent, not only gives it an immensely 
wider capacity of iut#l-ior trade, but a far easier access to the sources of supply 
of raw material. A region six times as large as all New-England, as yet 
undeveloped, but already starting on the swift career of Western growth, and 
capable of supporting many millions of population, is directly dependent upon 
Minnesota for all the maaufactured commodities it may consume. Its position 
relative to these Northwestern valleys, invests its manufacturing capabilities with 
an importance greater than those of any other of the interior districts of the con- 
tinent. For the future manufacture of cotton and woolen fabrics, it has decided 
advantages of position over New-England. The Mississippi river brings it iutO' 
intimate relations with the sources of the cotton supply, and it lies in the midst 
of the great wool zone of the continent." 

The falls of the St. Louis river, at the point where the Lake Superior and 
Mississippi R. R. reaches the navagable waters of Lake Superior, said to furnish 
a manufacturing power equal to that of the falls of the Mississippi river at St. 
Anthony, must not be omitted from the above list. 

Minnesota is evidently destined to become one of the greatest manufacturing 
States in the world, and already manufactories are springing up everywhere. 
There were five huucTred and eleven establishments in 1860, with an aggregate 
capital of two and a half millions, producing annually four and a half million 
dollars worth of nKmufactures. The present number of establishments is esti- 
mated at two thousand, with a capital often millions. 

Minnesota has tbe further advantage of possessing the raw material for a 
large class of manufactures,— copper, iron, wool, lumber, salt springs, sand for 
fliiit glass, &c., as already referred to, aiso coal and peat. 

AGRICULTURAL CAPACITY — THE SOIL AND ITS 

PRODUCTS. 

Not only are the manufacturing facilities of Minnesota equal to any in the 
world, but its agricultural capacities are unsurpassed by the finest agricultural 
districts of the old States, 'ibis combination of agriculture aud manufacture is 
something very unusual ; generally where one feature is present, the other is ab- 
sent ; but here,both features exist with all their advantages. Persons residing 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 21 

iSn the Middle and Western States too often roi^avd .Minnesota as an inhospita- 
ble region, too cold for agricutural pursnits. Bat such will leara with surprise 
that few of the most productive districts in the world can compete with Minne- 
sota. 

Soils. — "The prevailing soil of Minnesota is a darli, calcareous, sandy loam, 
•containing a various intermixture of clay, abounding in mineral salts and in or- 
ganic ingredients, derived from the accumulation of docomjjosed vegetable mat- 
ter for long ages of growth and decay. The sand of which silica is the base, 
forms a large proportion of this, as of all good soils. It plays an important part 
in the economy of growth, and is an essential constituent in the organism of 
all cereals. About sixty-seven per cent of the ash of the stems of wheat, corn, 
rye, barley, oats and sugar-cane, is pure silica, or flint. It is this which gives 
the glazed" coating to the plants, and gives strength to the stalk. 

"The superiority of sand in giving a high temperature to the soil, is a great 
advantage in a climate in which the limited period of vegetation requires the 
highest measures of heat." 

This species of soil, on account of its penetrability to a great distance, by the 
roots of plants, enables them to gather nutiiment at a greater distance from 
the stalk. It is porous, and permits free respiration of the soil, — as important' 
to plants as aoimals. Owing to capilary attraction, it easily imbibes moisture 
from the air, and retains it a long time, enabling it to support vegetation during 
drouths, that in less favored localities prove disastrous to crops. The same 
quality prevents it from becoming supersaturated with water during wet seasons, 
on account of the facility with which it drains. 

There is also this further advantage of sandy soils, that the roads are smooth 
and hard, easily made and kept in order, and are free from mire and mud, thus 
facilitating travel, hauling, &c., as well as farm labor generally. 

"Another important feature of the soil of Minnesota is, that its earthy mate- 
rials are minutely pulverized, and the soil is everywhere light, mellow and 
spongy, existing naturally in the condition reached in soils less favorably con- 
stituted, by expensive uuder-drainage. With these uniform characteristics, the 
soils of Minnesota are of different grades of fertility, according to local situa- 
tions, or the character of the underlying rocks from which their elements have 
been derived. Distributed according to geological situations, the soils of the 
agricultural district of Minnesota may be divided into limestone soils, drift soils, 
clay soils, and trap soils." 

Products of the Soil. — The following table shows the staple agricultural pro- 
ducts of Minnesota, and about the average yield per acre : — 



Crops. At. No. budiels per aere. 


Crops. At. No. bushels per acre. 


Wheat, .... 22.05 


Sweet potatoes, - . - 150.00 


Rye, .... 21.56 


Beans, .... 15.00 


Barley, .... 33.23 


Hemp lint, (pounds,) - - 1,140.00 


Oats, .... 42.39 


Flax lint, " - 750.00 


Buckwheat, - - . 20.00 


Sorghum, (gallons svrup) 100.00 


Corn, .... 35.67 


Hay, (tons) . ' . . 2.12 


Potatoes, .... 20b.O0 





The above table is compiled from the census of 1860, and various other 
sources, and gives only the average yield of the crops mentioned, and may be 
taken as a fair sample of the average for the State at large, one year with another. 
It must be understood, however, that on the prevailing soil of Minnesota, with 
manuring and careful cultivation, the actual yield is often nearly double the above 
figures. Potatoes, for instance, set down at 208, on good soil, and ordinary culti- 
vation, will easily yield 300 bushels per acre ; wheat 35, corn 40, and other crops 
in proportion. In 18G5, from 400,000 acres of wheat in Minnesota there was 
harvested the enormous crop of 10.000,000 bushels, being an average yield of 25 
bushels to the acre. Nor was that year's crop considered any thing extraordi- 
nary for our soil. 

Wheat is one of the chief staples of agriculture in Minnesota, and is compara- 
tively exempt from the dangers to which it is exposed in other States, — drouth, 



22 MINNESOTA : 

rust, smut, insects &c. The average percentage of the tilled area of the State in < 
wheat is over 53 per cent, nearly double that of Ohio, wWch is 33, or Illinois, 
which is 28, from the fact that in those States the uncertainty of the crop, from> 
the above causes, renders it unsafe to venture so large a proportion of the crop^ 
upon so precai'ious a product. In Minnesota the whest crop is regarded as a, 
sure and safe one, and rarely fails of a fine yield. The farmer sows with an as- 
surance of reaping a good return, which he could feel in no other State, except- 
perhaps Wisconsin and Northwestern Michigan, which belong to the same great? 
wheat belt as Minnesota. 

COMPARISON WITH OTHER STATES. 

The wheat crop of Minnesota is not only more certain than that of Ohio,,. 
Illinois, Iowa, and other great wheat growing States, but the yield is greater- 
than the best of them. The average wheat-yield of Minnesota has been put 
down at 22 bushels to the acre ; in some counties, the yield was 25. The aver- 
age wheat-yield of the rich prairies of Illinois, owing to uncertainty of the crop 
perhaps, was stated as not over 8 bushels per acre, by Abraham Lincoln, in an 
address before the Wisconsin State Fair of 1859. The average yield of Iowa, 
is not over 12 bushels ; that of Ohio and Pennsylvania will not exceed 10. The 
average yield of Iowa ia 1859, was 4 bushels; that of Minnesota for the same 
year was 19. In 1850, the four States producing the largest average yield, were 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida ; this did not exceed 15 bushels, 
while the other States averaged only from 5 to 12. The largest known yield of 
other States, as compared with the average of Minnesota, is as follows : 

Year. Bush, per acre. Year. Bush, per acre. 

Minnesota, - - - 1860 22 Michigan, - - - 1848 19 

Ohio, 1850 17.3 Massachusetts, - - 1849 16 

In the face of these facts, we need have no hesitancy in pronouncing Minne- 
sota the banner wheat State of the Union. Spring wheat is principally sowU' 
but winter wheat does equally well, I believe. 

Com. — Many newspapers in States south of us have asserted that Minnesota^- 
is too cold for corn. But this is not so ; though not so much of a staple pro- 
duct as wheat, corn grows well in Minnesota, and the yield compares favorably 
with that of the best corn States. When stock, especially hogs, are raised to a., 
greater extent than at present in the State, the corn crop must eventually become 
an important one to our farmers. The average corn yield of Minnesota in 1859, 
a bad year, waS 26 bushels ; I860, 35J ; 1865, 43^ ; the average may be set 
down at 35 bushels per acre ; that of Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky at 20 ; that 
of Iowa, just south of us, 23. The average yield in 1859, was 26 bushels, 11 
per cent higher than that of Iowa for the same year. 

"The following table will show how the corn yield of Minnesota in 1860- 
compares with that of other Northwestern and Middle States in the Census re- 
cord of L850 : 

Minnesota, 
Ohio, - 
Indiana, 
Illinois, 
Iowa, 

"These statistics established beyond a cavil the fact, that while Minnesota is far- 
ahead of any of these States in its capacity for wheat production, it is inferior to 
none of them as a corn State." — 2d Rep. Com. of Statistics. 

"This," adds the Report " strikingly confirms the law already noticed, that the- 
cultivated plants yield their greatest products near the northernmost limits of" 
their respective growth." 

Oats. — The superiority of our climate and soil in the production of the 
cereals is nowhere more strikingly manifested than in the inferior classes of these 
graias." In 1859, the average yield of this crop was 33 bushels to the acre p. 



verage yield per 


acre. 




Average yli 


eld per acre. 


35.67 




Michigan, 


. 


32 


- 36 




Wisconsin, 


. 


- 35 


33 




Pennsylvania, 


- 


20 


- 33 




New York, 


- 


- 27 


32 











ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 23 

in 1860, it was 42 ; in 1865, the yield was 51 J bushels. I have no means of 
compai-inp: these results with the yield of other States, but doubt not but that the 
comparison would be a favorable as that of wheat and corn. 

Rye, Barley and Buckwheat, like the other small grains, do exceedingly well 
in Minnesota. Mr. Wheelock in the valuable Report so often referred to says : 
"The climatic influences whicQ give the wheat of Minnesota its recognized 
superiority of grain, are especially marked iu the quality of our barley. This is 
beginning to be so generally recognized, that it is already exported in consider- 
able quantities to supply breweries in the Middle States." The average yield per 
acre of these grains for three years were as follows : 

1859. 1S60. 1862. 1865. 

Rye, - - - . 19.4 21.56 24.00 

Barley, .... 29.1 33.23 34.00 37.50 
Buckwheat, ... 6.5 15.73 26.00 

1859, it must be remembered, was a poor crop year, and the small yield of 
buckwheat for some years, is owing to the fact that it is generally sown on refuse 
land fit for nothing else. 

Potatoes. — "The superior flavor and the rich farinaceous quality of the pota- 
toes of Minnesota, afford an apt illustration of the principle maintained by Hr. 
Forry, that the cultivated plants come to perfection only near the nothern limits 
of their growth. In the south, the potatoe, in common with other tuberous and 
bulbous plants, with beets, turnips, and other garden roots, is scarcely fit for 
human food. 'A forcing sun,' says Dr. Forry, ' brings the potatoe to fructifica- 
tion before the roots have had time to attain their proper size, or ripen into the 
qualities proper for nourishment.' Minnesota, at the West, reproduces the best 
northern samples of this delicious esculent, in characteristic perfection. From 
their farina and flavor, the potatoes of Minnesota are already held in considerable 
esteem as a table delicacy in the States below us, and a market is rapidly grow- 
ing up for them throughout the States of the Mississippi Valley, as is indicated 
by increasiag exports." — /. A. Wheelock. 

The potatoe crop of Minnesota is remarkably exempt from the rot which often 
affects that of States south of us. In the fall of 1864, a large proportion of the 
potatoes in the St Louis and Eastern markets were rotten hearted, while Minne- 
sota potatoes were perfectly sound. The average yield of this crop in 1859, 
according to the assessors' returns was only 115 bushels to the acre ; in 1860, it 
was 138 ; and in 1865, 164 bushels. These figures must not be understood as 
giving a fair showing of the actual capacity of the soil, when it is known that the 
crops giving these results were simply plowed iu, and overrun with grass, recei\Tng 
no other attention than one or two plowiugs. When due attention is paid to 
cultivation, the yield will be from 300 to 400 bushels per acre. I have taken 
50 bushels from a patch 70 feet square, which had be«n properly weeded with 
the hoe. 

Sorghum. — But little attention has been paid to this crop in Minnesota. It 
is evidently adapted to a warmer climate, but planted early, on our rich soil, it 
will grow and produce equal to any place in the world. The average yield from 
very imperfect returns, has been set at down 72i gallons; but "jome' instances 
are reported where a product of 200 and even 300 gallons has been obtained 
from one acre," says Mr. Wheelock : and there is no doubt but that the everage 
yield may be safely estimated at fiom 100 to 150 gallons per acre. 

Maple Sugar. — The sugar maple is found plentifully in the timbered part of 
the State. A product of 370,947 pounds of muple sugar, was reported for 1860. 

Tobacco. — In 1862, 48,137 pounds of tobacco, averaging 1,140 pounds per 
acre,were raised in the State. 

Hay. — Timothy and clover flourish in Minnesota ;"in fact, white clover, "ed 
top, and blue grass seem indigenous to the soil, and speedily cover any land 
pastured much. The tame grasses are but little cultivated on this account ; the 
luxuriant growth of the native grasses, which cover the "immense surface of 
natural meadow land formed by the alluvial bottoms of the intricate network of 
streams which every where intersect the country," and which " are as rich and 



24 MENNESOTA : 

Dutricious in this latitude as the best exotic varieties," render cultivation unne- 
cessary. The average yield of these grasses is 2.12 tons per acre, 60 per cent, 
greater than that of the great hay State of Ohio, which, according to the Com. 
of Statistics of that State, is IJ tons per acre. 

The lint plants. Flax, Hemp, ^'c, as they come to perfection only in a cool 
climate, do extremely well in Minnesota. Their bark, in southern climates, is 
harsh and brittle, because the plant is forced into maturity so rapidly that the 
lint does not acquire either consistency or tenacity. Minaesota is equal for flax 
and hemp growth to Northern Europe. The yield of hemp lint in 1862, was 
1,140 pounds per acre ; flax lint, 750 pounds per acre. 

Onions, Turnips, Parsnips, Carrots, Beets, and nearly all bulbous plants, do 
equally as well as the potatoe. 

Sweet Potatoes. — Our loamy, warm sandy soil is just the thing for it, but our 
seasons are rather short ; planted early however, it yields a good crop. The 
average yield of sweet potatoes in 1862, was 150 bushels per acre. 

Turnips, Rutabagoes, and Beets often attain a great size. 

The Salad Plants. — Cabbages, lettuces, endive, celery, spinach — plants whose 
leaves only are eaten — are not only more tender here than in warm climates, 
where the relaxing sun lays open their very buds, and renders their leaves thin 
and tough, but are more nutricious, because their growth is slow and their 
juices well digested. 

Melons, although they come in rather late, instead of throwing too much of 
their growth into the vine, as they do south, attain a large size, and a rich sac 
charine and aromatic flavor, 'i'his is especially true of the Cantelope melon 
which in warmer climates has its sides baked or rots before it is fully matured. 

Pumpkins, Sqiiash, ^-c, on the same principle, fully mature, and grow very 
fine and large, fhe Hubbard variety requires early planting, say first of May. 

Beans, Peas, ^c, of every variety, are fine and prolific. Rhubarb, or Pie 
Plant, flourishes without cultivation. 

Perhaps in no State in the Union does the soil so surely and amply reward la- 
bor, or yield larger products for the amount of labor bestowed on it It is easily 
cleared of weeds, and once clean, its warm forcing nature enables the crop to 
speedily outstrip all noxious growths. Two good thorough workings usually in- 
sures a good growth of almost any cultivated crop. 

JFEUITS. 

Apples, tj-c. — Ac impression seems to prevail abroad that we cannot raise 
fruit in Minnesota, — "an extraordinary iuference," says Wheelock, "when we 
consider that many forms of wild fruit are indigenous to the country." Our cli- 
mate is evidently not so well adapted to fruit-raising as that of some other States 
south of us. Still, sufiBcient of most kinds may be raised to supply the home 
demand. It has been demonstrated that many varieties of apples do well here, 
and there are now several bearing orchards in the vicinity of Minneapolis, Wi- 
nona, St. Paul, Red Wing, Owatona, Rochester, Mankato, and other portions of 
the State. The specimens of Minnesota apples at the State fair of 1866, were 
equal in size and flavor to the same varieties elsewhere produced. It is not the 
severity of the winter that kills the tree, but the alternate thawing and freezing 
of the south side of the tree in the spring, which is avoided by mulching, and 
protecting the stem of the tree wheu young, by a wrapping of s traw. The State 
being new, time sufficient for planting and acclimating orchards, has not elapsed; 
but there is no longer any doubt of our ability to raise fine apple orchards. 
Dwarf cherry and peach trees, which are easily protected in winter, do well, but 
the larger varieties are too tender. However, cherries may ye t succeed, as the 
wild variety is a native of the soil. Apples grow well in Wisco nsin, right along 
side of us ; in Canada and New-England, north of us. The inference is clear 
that by procuring our trees north of us, (not south, as has her etofore been the 
practice) or planting the seeds and thus acclimating them, or by grafting on to 
the stock of the Siberian crab, which is remarkably healthy and hardy, and flonr-Q 
ishes here through the coldest winters without protejtion, we may raise all th 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 25 

p pies we wish. There are several flourishing nurseries near Winona, Red 
Wing, St, Paul, Minneapolis, and other portions of the State. 

Cnib Apples. — The wild crab apple tree is indigenous to the soil, improves 
TOUch by cultivation, and furnishes an excellent stock for grafting, but inferior to 
the Siberian Crab, which is equally hardy, and furnishes an excellent apple for 
preserving. Some varieties approach a hen's egg in size, and are quite palatable. 

Strawberries. — Every variety of this excellent fruit does well here, attaining 
a size and flavor unsurpassed. Wild ones fill the woods and proiries every year. 

Grapes. — The different varieties succeed well here, and several varieties of the 
wild grape vine grow luxuriantly all over the State. The cultivated varieties, 
while young, require to be laid down in the fall, and protected by a light cover- 
ing of straw. The nature of our climate and soil would seem to designate Min- 
nesota lis a great grape-growing State. The juices of the grape, says Dr. For- 
ry, are best matured for wiue near the northern limit of their growth. On the 
Rhine, in Hungary, the sides of the Alps, and other elevated or northern situa- 
tions, the vine is strongest, richest, and most esteemed. The grapes of France 
are more delicious for the table than those of Spain or Madeira, south of it. 
The excess of heat and moisture in the States south and east of us, blights 
the grape to such an extent that its culture has been abandoned. The vine, 
however, whether wild or cultivated, grows there luxuriantly. The vinous fer- 
mentation, as well as the pressing and distillation of the juice, can also be best 
conducted in a climate comparatively cool. 

Gooseberries, Currants, and Raspberries, axe cultivated extensively through- 
out the State, unsurpassed in flavor, size, and productiveness. They also grow 
wild, in common with blueberries, whortleberries, and both marsh and upright 
cranberries. 

Wild plums, of a great many diflerent varieties, some of them very large and 
fine, approximating the peach for domestic purposes, abound in the neighbor- 
hood of streams, lakes, and moist localities. They improve so much by being 
transplanted and cultivated as to equal any of the tame varieties. Wild cherries 
are also plenty. 

From this list it is apparent that Minnesotians are not likely to suffer for the 
want of fruit A od it may be remarked of all fruits generally grown in Minne- 
sota, that, owing to the principle announced by Dr. Forry, they attain a perfec- 
tion found only at the northernmost limit of their growth. The pulp is delicate, 
saccharine, and of a rich flavor, while they are free from the larvae, gum, knots, 
and acerbity of fruit grown further south. The dryness of the atmosphere, as 
well as the inherent perfection of the fruit, enables us to preser^'e it for a much 
longer time than can be done in warmer localities. Apples keep much better 
than in St Louis or Cincinnati. 



MINNESOTA AS A BEE COUNTRY. 

This industrious insect thrives better in Minnesota than in regions south of 
us. Bees require a clear, dry atmosphere, and a rich harvest of flowers. If the 
air is damp, or the weather cloudy, they will not work so well. Another rea- 
son why they work less in a warm climate, is that the honey gathered remains 
too fluid for sealing a longer time ; and if gatliei-ed faster than it thickens, it 
Bours and spoils. Our clear bright skies, dry air, and rich flora, are well adapted 
to bee culture, and since the process of burying bees during the winter has been 
introduced by Bidwell Brothers, and adopted by the best apiarists, the length 
and coldness of our winters cease to be an obstacle. In fact, experience proves 
that bees succeed better here, consume less honey during winter, and the colony 
comes out stronger in the spring than in warmer localities. Bidwell Brothers' 
apiary, near St. Paul, contains four hundred colonies or hives. The annual sur- 
plus product of bees here averages from $10 to $20 per hive. Every Minnesota 
fanner, with a little care, can raise sufficient honey for his own wants, and have 
a surplus for market 



26 



MINNESOTA 



May. 


June. 


July. 


August. 


Sept. 


59.0 


68.4 


73.4 


70.1 


68.9 


C1.4 


69.6 


73.5 


70.7 


63.6 


56.3 


62.7 


70.7 


68.5 


60.1 


57.04 


65.57 


71.08 


69.10 


62.78 



THE GROWING SEASON IN MINNESOTA. 

In Minnesota, during the growing season, we find all those conditions most 
favorable to agriculture present in a marked degree. Its mean spring tempera- 
ture is 45.6 degrees, which is the same as that of Central Wisconsin, Northern 
Illinois, Northern Ohio, Central and Southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 2i 
degrees south of it. Its summer temperature is 70.6 degrees, corresponding 
with that of Middle Illinois and Ohio, Southern Pennsylvania, Long Island and 
New Jersey, 5 degrees south of it 

The season of vegetation in Minnesota, in common with that of the upper belt 
of the temperate zooe, is embraced between the first of April and the first of 
October. Some idea of the average temperature of this period may be obtained, 
bycomparing it with the same period in other localities, whose agricultural capa- 
cities are well known : 

April. 

St. Paul, Minn. - - 46.3 
Marietta, 0., - - - 52.3 

Chicago, 111., - - 46.0 
Boston, Mass., - ■• 45.57 

It will be observed that the temperature of the growing months in the above 
places is so nearly the same, that the difference can be scarcely appreciable.* 
"The April of Minnesota is still the April of England, but her May corresponds 
in temperature with the English June." 

The spring temperature of Ohio, it will be noticed, is greater than that of 
Minnesota, while its summer temperature is less. The coolness of the Minnesota 
spring, and the rapid increase in temperature as summer approaches, is claimed 
as a great advantage, and on this fact the prefection of its grains and other agri- 
cultural products iu a great measure depends. The fact anounced by Dr. Forrey, 
"thut the cultivated plants yield the greatest products near the northernmost 
limits at which they will grow," is explained on the principle that the cool spring 
restrains the growth of the trunk and foliage of the plant, and throws the full 
development into the ripening period. "The very warm southern spring devel- 
ops the juices of the plant too rapidly. They run into the stalk, blade, and 
leaf, to the neglect of the seed, and dry away before the fructification becomes 
commplete. Our cooler springs reverse this process, restrain the undue luxuriance 
of the stem and leaf, and concentrate the juices in the development of the fruit 
and seed." 

The cereals all attain their most perfect development in northern climates. 
Potatoes and other cultivated roots follow the same law. The perfection and 
strength of the grasses in cool and northern regions, and their power of keeping 
horses and cattle fat without grain, is proverbial. Although the grasses attain 
sufficient size south, they are forced to a rapid fructification before they have 
time to elaborate their juices, and consequently contain but a small proportion 
of nutriment. These facts depend upon the same general law. At the same 
time, the products of grain, flour, &c., are manufactured to better advantage in a 
cold climate, as they are preserved from sourness, mustiness, &c., a longer time.f 

Period */ Exemption from Frost. — The period of total exemption from 
frost in Minnesota, varies from four to five and a half months, which allows 
ample time for the perfection of all the annual crops, The frost is general- 

♦"Mlnneaota, from its high northern position, has always had to maintain a certain struggle for 
a just appreciation against the ignorant preconceptions of the majority of people of our days, who 
were educated in the notion that latitude governs climate. It is difficult to make the New Hamp- 
shire farmer comprehend that St. Anthooy Falls, In the latitude of Hanover, has the summer climate 
of Philadelphia— or that wheat, which will scarcely grow in northern New England, thrives on the 
60th parallel, a thousand miles north of St. Paul. One of the most curious consequences of this ab- 
rupt northern deflection of the isothermal lines around the head of the great lake basing, is that St. 
Paul, In latitude 46, is very considerably warmer during the whole bLjc months of the growing season, 
than Chicago, In latitude 42. 

"It is not a little amusing, upon this showing, to read In the official report of the Illinois Central 
Company, and in the Chicago Democrat, that "every spring brings down the frost-Mtten and chilled 
inhabitants of Minnesota, to the mild and genial clime of UUaoh."— Report of Commissioner of 
attitistics. 

fSee an article on the "Acclimating Principle of Plants," in the American Journal of Geology, bj 
Dr. Forry. 



Minn. 


Ills. 


Pa. 


MaM. 


19.55 


26.30 


20.94 


23.15- 


5.88 


15.50 


21.40 


23.81 


11.00 


13.20 


11.93 


10.71 


1.92 


7.10 


10.76 


11.8> 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 27 

ly eutirely out of the groand, which is then ready for planting, the last of ApriB 
and first of May. The first fall of frost takes place with great regularity about 
the middle of September, though sometimes delayed till the middle of October. 
Minnesota is not exposed to late and early frosts more than the Middle and West- 
ern States. The peculiar dryness of the air also enables vegetation to resist 
light frosts, which in other localities would prove disastrous. This fact is exem- 
plified by the frost of June 4th, 1859, which was general nearly all over the 
United States. In Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, it was universally destructive ; 
ice formed one-third inch thick in Ohio ; but in Minnesota no damage whatever 
was done to field crops. On account of this dryness, the temperature may fall 
considerably below the freezing point at times, without producing frosL The 
dryness of the atmosphere, notwithstanding the abundance of the summer rains,, 
is also very important on account of the protection it gives wheat and oats from 
rust, smut, and insects, which often seriously injure the wheat fields of moister 
climates. 

Advantageous Distribution of Rain. — The mean annual fall of rain in Min- 
nesota, as set down in Blodget's hyetal charts, is twenty-five inches. It is a 
remarkable fact that the greater part of this moisture is deposited during the 
sLx growing months, when it is most needed, instead of being wasted in delug- 
ing the land and making winter disa":rceable, as in New England and the "West- 
ern and Middle States. The following, from the report of the Commissioner of 
Statistics, shows the contrast between Minnesota and the above States, in this 
respect : 

The six warm and growing mouths, - . 
The six cold and non producing months, - 
The three summer months, 
The three winter months, 

"Now, all the points here brought into comparison have a greater rain fall ia< 
the whole growing season than Minnesota ; but the summer fall is nearly the 
same, their superfluous spring and autumn rains, which are unnecessary and evea 
injurious to vegetation, making up the difierence in the whole quantity for the 
warm months." 

The excessive autumnal rains in the above States are often very destructive ta 
harvests. Immense amounts of wheat and corn were thus destroyed in Illinois 
in 1862. " The Minnesota farmer reaps as he sows, in the full confidence that 
no untimely tempest will defraud him of the fruits of his labors. In these wet 
climates, in the reeking summer air, agriculture is a perpetual vigil against con- 
cealed enemies." 

CHEAPNESS OP OPENING FARMS. 

It is a fact worthy of note, that in all places whose growth is unsubstantial,, 
the price of land is disproportionately high, while its products are low. But 
in Minnesota, real state is low, land is extremely cheap, (owing to the large- 
surplus yet unoccupied,) while its products command the first prices. Wheat, 
oats, corn, potatoes, and in fact all that the farmer raises, find a ready market for 
cash at home. A cnrious illustration of the practical working of this principle 
is that lands purchased at ten dollars per acre are paid for ont of the proceeds 
of the first crop. Take this instance : A gentleman having a farm for sale, 
offered it, with improvements, for $9 per acre. Failing to sell, he leased it,, 
receiving one-third of the crop. Uis third netted him more than he would have 
realized from the sale of the land. Many such instances could be given. This 
illustrates what bargains may be secured wheie lands are cheap and the products 
of the soil high. A communication in the St. Paul Press, says : "It is our 
duty to let people read and learn of Minnesota, where a man can buy land, 
break and fence it, and pay for the land, breaking, fencing and all expenses, out 
of the first crop. I" 

A man with a small, but high priced farm in the old States can dispose of it 
for sufficient to set himself up well in Minnesota, and procure a farm for each of 
his children besides ; and these farms in a few years will be as valuable as the> 
one in the old State is now. 



28 MDsTS'ESOTA 



THE CLIIVIATE OF MESTNESOTA. 

3DNPAKALLELED HEALTHFULNESS — EXEMPTION FROM PULMONARY AND MALARIOUS 

DISEASES — CAUSES OF ITS SALUBRITY — DRYNESS AND PURITY OF THE AIR 

TEMPERATURE AS COMPARED WITH OTHER STATES — AS A RESORT FOR INVALBDS 
AC, &0. 

BY A PHYSICIAN. 

The assertion that the climate of Minnesota is one of the healthiest in the 
Tvorld, may be broadly and confidently made. It is sustained by the almost 
tinaniraous testimony of the thousands of invalids who have sought its pure and 
bracing air, and recovered from consumption and other diseases after they had been 
given up as hopeless by their home physicians ; it is sustained by the experience 
of its inhabitants for twenty years ; and it is sustained by the published statis- 
tics of mortality in the different States. The eminent Dr. Horace Bushnell, of 
Hartford, Conn., after spending a year in Cuba and another in California, with- 
out any pennanent benefit, spent a year in Minnesota, and recovered. After 
returning East and subniitting to a rigid examination, his physicians said : " Vou 
Tiave had a difficulty in the right lung, but it is healed ." In a published letter 
he says :— "I have known of ver^^ remarkable cases of recovery there which had 
seemed to be hopeless. One, of a gentleman who was carried ashore on a litter, 
^and became a hearty, robust man. Another who told me he had even coughed 
Tip bits of his lung of the size of a walnut, was then, seven or eight months 
after, a perfectly sound -looking, well-set man, with no cough at all. I fell in 
w^ith somebody every few days who had come there and been restored ; and with 
multitudes of others whose disease has been ai-rested, so as to allow the prose- 
•cution of business, and whose lease of life, as they had no doubt, was much 
lengthened by their migration to that region of the country." 

Many of our most prominent business men, whom no one would now take for 
invalids, belong to the above class. Almost any one who has resided here for 
any length of time can refer to numbers, now enjoying ordinary health, who on 
first coming here were considered hopelessly gone with consumpti»n, or other 
chronic diseasa It is believed consumption is never generated here, which is a 
strong proof that the climate is a favorable one for those afflicted with the disease. 

Minnesota is entirely exempt from malaria, and consequestly the numerous 
•diseases known to arise from it, such as chills and fever, autumnal fevers, ague 
■cake or enlarged spleen, enlargement of the liver, &c., dropsy, diseases of the 
kidneys, affections of the eye, and various billions diseases, and derangements of 
the stomach and bowels, although sometimes arising from other causes, are often 
-due wholly to malarious agency, and are only temporarily relieved by medicine, 
because the patient is constantly exposed to the malarious influence which gen- 
erates them. Enlargement of the liver and spleen is very common in Southern 
and Southwestern States. We are not only free from those ailments, but by com- 
ing to Minnesota, often without any medical treatment at all, patients speedily 
recover from this class of diseases ; the miasmatic poison being soon eliminated 
from the system, and not being exposed to its farther inception, the functions ©f 
health are gradually resumed. 

Diarrhea and dysentery are not so prevalent as in warmer latitudes, and are of 
a milder type. Pneumonia and typhoid fever are very seldom met with, and 
then merely as sporadic cases. 

Diseases of an epidemic character never have been known to prevail here. 
" Even that dreadful scourge, diptheria, which like a destroying angel, swept 
through portions of the country, leaving desolation in its train, passed us by 
■with scarce a grave to mark its course. The diseases common to infancy and 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLEKS. 



2i> 



chHclhood, partake of the same mild character, and seldom prove fatal." Thia is 
the language of Mrs. Coiburn, an authoress, and the experience of physicians 
corroborates this opinion. 

That dreadful scourge of the human family, the cholera, is alike unknown; 
here. During the summer of 1866, while hundreds were daily cut down by this 
visitation in New York, Cincinnati, 8t Louis, aud other places, and it prevailed 
to an alarming extent in Chicago, — not a single case made its appearance 
iu Minnesota. 

Another, aud a very large class of invalids, which derive great benefit from 
the climate of Minnesota, are those whose sj'stems have become relaxed, debili- 
tated, and broken down, by over-taxation of the mental and physical energies, 
dyspepsia, &c. 

And these facts, establishing as they do the remarkable salubrity of our cli- 
mate, are borne out by statistics. The following table is copied from the Uni- 
ted States census of 18C0. The percentage column exhibits the number of 
deaths iu every 100 persons ; the last column shows the number, in each State, 
out of which one person has died : 





Popula- 
tion. 


Deaths. 


a . 


o 
76 




Popula- 
tion. 


a . 
Deaths, u u 


<o > 

a « 



Alabama, 


964,201 


12,760 


1.82 


mssonri, 


1,182,012 


17,557ll.48 


67 


Arkansas, 


435,460 


8,860 


2.08 


40 


New Hampshire, 


826,078 


4.469:1.87 


72 


California, 


379,994 


8,705 


.97 


loa 


New Jersey, 


672,035 


7,525! 1.11 


89- 


Connecticut, 


460,147 


6,188 


1.33 


74 


New York, • 


8,880,785 


46.88111.20 


82 


Delaware, 


112,216 


1,846 


1.11 


90 


North Carolina, 


992,62-2 


12,607 1.27 


78 


Florida, 


144,425 


1,769 1.25 


79 


Ohio, 


2,3.39,611 


24,724 1.05 


94 


Georgia, - 


1,057,286 


12,807 


1.21 


82 


Oregon, - 


52,465 


251 .47 


209 


llUnois, 


1,711,961 


19,263 


1.12 


68 


Pennsylvania, - 


2,906,115 


80,214 1.03 


96 


Iowa, 


674,918 


7,260 


l.f7 


98 


Rhode Island, 


174,63u 


2,479 1.41 


70 


Indiana, 


1,360,438 


15,206 


1.12 


88 


South Carolina, 


703,708 


9,745 1.3S 


72 


Kansas, - 


107,806 


1,443 1.84 


74! 


Tennesse*, 


1,109,801 


15,176 1.36 


73. 


Kentucky, - 


1,155,6S4 


16,467 1.44 


70 i 


Texas, • 


604,215 


9,369 1 55 


64- 


Louisiana, 


708,002 


12,829 1.74 


57j 


Vermont, - 


815,093 


8,355 1.06 


93 


Maine, - 


628,379 


7,614|1.21 


82' 


Virginia, 


1,696,318 


22,474 1 40 


71 


Maryland, 


687,049 


7,870 1.07 


93| 


WieconBin, 


776,831 


7,129 .92 


10* 


JIassachusetts, 


1,281,068 


21,304,1-78 


67 


Dlst. of Columbia, 


75,080 


1,275 i.cy 


58 


Michigan, 


749,118 


7,89ii 9S 


101 


Nebraska, - 


28,841 


3S1 1.32 


75. 


Minnesota, - 


172,123 


1,109| .64 


155 


New Mexico, 


93,616 


1,305 1.89 


71 


Mississif^pi, 


791,305 


12,214 1.54 


6li 


Utah, 


40,273 


374 .92 


lor 



It will be observed that Minnesota has the smallest mortality of any State in 
£he Union, except Oregon. Oregon, though a very healthy clime, is not a resort 
for invalids. Lying on the Pacific coast, its climate, like that of New England, 
is too humid to attract invalids. On the contrary, Minnesota is a gi-eat resort 
for consumptive invalids, and those laboring under various chronic diseases. 
Of course, some come too late, and die here — probably living a year or so 
longer than they would at home. This swells our mortality list, and takino; it 
out, Minnesota would hold a higher place than even Oregon. 



CAUSES OF THE HEALTHEULNESS OF MINNESOTA. 

However interesting it might be to go into a scientific exposition of the 
causes and theories of the exemption of Minnesota from many of the diseases 
which annually carry off thousands in the older States of America and Europe, 
space will not permit, and I must confine myself to such facts as are already es- 
tablished beyond cavil or dispute. 

Absence of Malaria. — A large proportion of the diseases which afflict man- 
kind have their origin in the poisonous and unhealthy emanations which arise 
from the earth. These emanations embody a subtle principle termed vialaria, 
which is constantly rising, like an imperceptible gas, poisoning the air, and gen- 
erating disease, chills and fever, different kinds of fever, pneumonia, diarrhea, 
dysentery, debility, biliousness, diseases of the liver, spleen, kidneys, (fee. The 



50 MU^TESOTA : 

low temperature of our winters, contiuuiug as they do for four months, effectually 
•destroys any malaria that might lurk in the soil, ready to spring forth in warm 
weather. 

AVe are thug entirely free from malaria, and the far;t is well established that 
chills and fever, and diseases generally, of a malarious origin, are entirely im- 
known in Minnesota, and those who come here suffering these ailments si>eedily 
Tecover. 

Perturbation of the Air. — The atmosphere, like large bodies of water, re- 
•quires perturbation to preserve its purity ; otherwise it becomes heavy and 
stagnant, loaded with impurities and unhealthy, depressing the spirits by its mo- 
notony, and inducing a torpid condition of the whole system. The waters of 
the ocean, and of large lakes, are kept pure by the agitation of the winds and 
tides. All healthy countries are windy, but all windy countries are not healthy. 
Winds blowing for many days in succession from one quarter, become pregnant 
"with moisture and other impurities. The winds in Minnesota are not persistent 
and severe, but constitute rather a lively agitation of the air, which constantly 
<;hanges it, carrying off noxious vapors and effluvia, conducing to its clearness 
and purity, and imparting to it those qualities which give tone to the system 
-and invigorate the nutritive functions. 

The prevailing direction of our winds is from the south, according to obser- 
vations, extending over twelve years, recorded in the U. S, Army meteorologi- 
cal register "This fact," says Mr. Wheelock, " goes far toward accounting for 
the exceptional warmth of the spring and summer months in Minnesota, and 
serves to show that the direction of currents of air exerts an influence only lees 
"than the position in latitude in forming the measure of heat and cold." Our 
-winds, instead of passing over the ocean, laden, like those dreaded "east winds" 
of New England and the Atlantic coast generally, with saline moisture, come to 
•us only after traversing half a continent of land, pure and invigorating. 

A comparison of the mean force of the wind for ten years, at different places, 
gives the following result : Fort Snelling, Minnesota, 1.87 ; New London, Con- 
necticut, 2.67 ; New York city, 2.96 ; Eastport, Maine, 2.63 ; Portsmouth, 
N. H., 2.50; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 2.20; Detroit, Michigan, 2.26; Fort 
Atkinson, Iowa, 2.48 ; Fort Leavenworth, K ansas, 2.09. We thus perceive that 
the mean force of the wind in Minnesota is less than at e'ther of the other places, 
representing, as they do, all sections of the Union excpt the South, and con- 
firms the statement previously made, that our winds are lively agitations of the 
air, rather than sti-ong, continuous currents. As a consequence, the snows drift 
less than in the East, and usually lie without material disturbante. 

The following table, from the report of the Commissioner of Statistics, gives 
a synopsis of the climate of Minnesota for the whole year, from which it will be 
seen that a more perfect harmony between the three great fundamental condi- 
tions of climate than is here displayed, could be found no where on earth : 



Mean Temp'ture— 4eg8. 
Rain — IncbeB, • • - 
Prevailing Wlnd»— 
Courses, . . - . 

Dryness of the Air. — Another great cause of the salubrity of our climate is 
the marked dryness of the air. Moisture is a powerfull agent in generating dis- 
ease. It is the main vehicle of»malaria and other atmospheric poisons. They 
cliu"- to it, or it holds them in solution. It is through the watery vapor of the 
atmosphere that most morbific agenta reach the human body. While an at-mos- 
pbere which is too dry, lilve that of arid plains and sandy deserts, is unhealthy, 
engendering over-action, fever, and debility, that which contains an excess of 
moisture is still more so. A humid climate rapidly abstracts the natural warmth 
of the body, and lowers the vitality of the system, producing feeble action and 
poor nutrition as a consequence, thus rendering the system open to attacks of 
inflammations, colds, coughs and consumption, as well as aeuralgic and rhuematic 



C9 


£ 


s 


■< 


S 


9 
•-9 


^ 


■< 


m 


o Sz; p 


1.3 7 


17.6 


31.4 


46.3 


59.0 


6S.4 


78.4 


70.1 


68.9 


47.1 81.7 16.9 


0.7 


0.5 


1.3 


2.1 


82 


8.6 


4.1 


8.2 


8.3 


1.4 1.3 0.7 


N.E. 


N.W. 


N.W. 


N.W. 


8.E. 


S.E, 


S.E. 


S.E. 


S.E. 


N. N.E. 


to 


to 


to 


to 


to 


to 


to 


to 


to 


8. to to 


N.W. 


S.W. 


S.W. 


S.W. 


S.W. 


S.W. 


S.W. 


S W. 


S.W. 


N.W. N.W. 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. SI 

affections, ('old, however intense, is not so perceptible if the air is dry. For 
■example : wet one hand ; hold it and the dry one in tne cold for a few minutes. 
A damp air penetrates and chills, drives the blood inwards, and shrinks and 
•wrinkles up the skin. A cold, dry air, like oars, is tonic, exhilarating, and 
•strengthening. It has not the feverish heat of the desert, nor yet the humid 
chilliness of the coast 'I'his dryness further conduces to its purity. It is pure 
air, such as God intended to be breathed, oxygenating and purifying the blood, 
and exerting a tonic influence on the whole organism. It is free from the thou- 
sand and one impurities held in suspension by the excess of moisture prevalent 
in the wet climates of fouthern and western States, and in New England. It is 
full of electricity, and rich in the life-giving principle termed ozone, never found 
in impure air. 

'J'emperature of '^hssF.soTX — Compared with other States — Errors repect- 
ing our Winters — Secret of the Salubrity of our Climate. — The popular im- 
pression that the further north you go the colder it gets, is an erroneous one. 
The rule is open to many exceptions. The configuration of the earth is such, 
that owing to mountain ranges, vast sandy plains, large ioland bodies of water, 
&c., the isothermal, or heat lines, are deflected several degrees north or south, 
thus giving places a thousand miles apart the same temperature. Thus places 
in the same latitude of the Saskatchewan river, (latitude 51° N.) enjoy the 
same annual mean temperature as places in the latitade of Fort Union (latitude 
37° N.) a thousand miles south of it. Minnesota, owing to the large lakes east 
and north of it, and the vast arid plains, extending from latitude 35° to latitude 
47° west of it, enjoys a mean spring temperature of 45°, warmer than Chicago 
2i° south of it, and equal to Southern Michigan, Central New York, and Massa- 
chusetts ; a summer mean of 70°, equal to Central New York, Central Wisconsin, 
Northern Pennsylvania, and Northern Ohio, four degrees south of us ; an autum- 
nal mean of 45°, equal to New Hampshire, Central Wisconsin and Central Mich- 
igan, 2i° south of us ; a winter mean of 10°, similar to Northern Wisconsin, 
Xothern Michigan, Central Vermont and ^Q\s Hampshire, on the same line of 
latitude, but nearer the ocean ; while its climate, for the entire year, being a mean 
of 45°, is similar to that of Central Wisconsin, New Hampshire, aad Central New 
York, two degrees south of it. We thus have an annual range of temperature 
from the summer of Southern Ohio to the winter of Montreal. 

Referring to the above contrasts of climate, Mr. J. Disturnell, in a paper read 
before the American Geographical and Statistical Society of New York, says : 
^'This remarkable fact can only be accounted for on the presumption that Min- 
nesota receives its favorable climatic iuflence as regards health and growth of 
vegetation, from secret laws of nature, yet to be discovered." 

But the veil which covers these natural laws is easily drawn aside. The luxu- 
riant growth of her vegetation, large yields of cereals, &c., as we have seen, are 
accounted for by her warm, rich soil, forcing summer sun and timely rains, while 
the secret of the salubrity of her climate is found in the dryness and consequent 
purity of our atmosphere, combined with all the advantages of a rugged, delight- 
ful land, charming seasons, lovely and magnificent scenery. 

That the dryness of our air is real, we have many evidences. Meat hung up, 
even in moderately warm weather, dries up before it spoils. Wagons, barrels, 
Ac, if left idle a short time, drop to pieces. The hygrometer, an instrument for 
determining the moisture in the air, shows our air to be very dry, generally. The 
hyetal, or rain charts, in Blodget's "Climatology of the United States," shows the 
remarkable fact that Minnesota is the dryest State in the Union, and at the same 
time the best watered, on account of its many lakes and streams, and free from 
drouths. Lying, as it does, betwees a vast arid belt on its west side, extending 
through twenty-five degrees, and a large humid belt of equal length on its east 
side, it enjoys a happy medium. The mean annual deposit of moisture w Min- 
nesota is 25 inches ; Wisconsin 30 to 40 ; Iowa 25 to 42 ; Indiana, Illinois, 
Ohio, Missouri. 42 to 48 ; Kentu<"ky, Tennessee, 50 ; Cannada, 34 to 36 ; New 
England and New York, 32 to 45 ; Pennsylvania, 36 ; Arkansas, Louisiana, 
Alabama, and Mississippi, 55 to 63 ; Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, 40 to 42. 



32 MINNESOTA : 

Errors respecting our Winters. — No region which at present engages the 
public mind, as a field for settlement, has been so grossly misrepresented, in re- 
gard to peculiarities of climate, as Minnesota. Fabulous accounts of its arctic 
temperature, piercing winds, and accompanying snows of enormous depth, em- 
belish the columns of the eastern press. — JYeiirs History of Minnesota. 

We have seen that such impressions are erroneous — that our climate com- 
pares favorably in all respects with that of many other densely populated States. 
Disinterested authorities, that cannot be questioned, have set this matter at rest 
long since, and it only remains to enlighten the public respecting the truth. 
However repugnant to popular prejudice it may seem, our winter fall of snow 
and rain is only one fifth that of New York and New England ; the average de- 
posit of moisture in those places for the winter being ten inches — that of Minne- 
sota two inches. — See BlodgeVs Climatology, ^c. page 342. 

The great bulk of our water falls during tlie six growing months, in the form 
of refreshing showers, which cool the air and encourage vegetation, leaving our 
winters dry, crisp, and bracing — much easier to endure than the same amount of 
cold in a damp climate. 

MINNESOTA AS A RESORT POR INVALIDS. 

Ever since consumption has been known, a change of climate has been re- 
commended by physicians as a means of arresting a disease which medicine can- 
not cure. Until within the past few years, it has been customary to send con- 
sumptives to southern latitudes. But medical opinion, influenced no doubt, by 
the poor success attending this plan, has undergoue a change, and as usual, gone 
from one extreme to another. Climates of a mild, equable temparature are no 
longer sought ; patients are now sent almoit invariably to dry, cool, northern 
climates, where the air is subject to considerable perturbation. 

There are many places which are, or have once been celebrated resorts for con- 
samptive invalids — Maderia, Ventuor, Torquay, Cuba, Florida, Algiers, Upper 
Egypt, &c. Many of these are now known to be positively injurious to this 
class of patients, and have been abandoned. Among them all, there are very 
few, even if harmless, that possesses any advantage. So unsatisfactory has been 
the result of change of climate that many eminent physicians no longer advise 
their patients to try it, beliving that they stand about as good a chance to 
recover at home. The fact that the disease is quite common in all of these places 
of refuge, leads us to the conclusion that the benefit derived from them in such 
cases, if any, is due to the mere change of climate rather than to any special 
influence arising from the localities themselves.* The supposition that a warm 
climate, or even a cold one possessing an equable temperature, free from sudden 
changes, is required by consumptives, is evidently an erroneous one. Dr. Law- 
son, the author of one of the ablest works on this disease which has ever been 
published in any language, says : "In order to promote health, the atmosphere 
should be subject to some degree of perturbation, and even rapid changes, pro- 
vided those variations are not great or extreme. The steppe of Kirghis, where 
consumption is almost unknown, is remarkable for its rapid changes, and even 
severe winds." Again : "In these early stages of phthisis, patients are already 
beginning to feel the depressing effects of disease, and therefore, require all those 
influences, hygienic and medicinal, which impart tone to the system, and thereby 
invigorate ttie nutritive functions. It cannot be presumed, however, that a mild 
and equable atmosphere will produce this result ; on the contary, the very mo- 
notony of the atmosphere must lead to depression, and thereby increase the de- 
bility." Of warm climates, he says ; "A very warm, stagnant and moist atmos- 
phere, with but little elevation, would manifestly prove injurious, and there is 
sufBcient ground to justify the conclusion that where the disease is far advanced, 
tropical regions wee unfavorable." "We have abundant testimony to prove 
that when the disease has become established, and the system debilitated, but 

* A Practical Treatise on Phthisis Pulmonalis," by L. M. Lawson, Cincinnati, 1861 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 33 

little good can be derived from warm regions, while, on the contrary, great in- 
jury mil often result." M. Rochard, another medical writer, refers to the fact 
that " tuberculosis marches with greater rapidity iu the torrid zone than in 
Europe." 

I have searched through a vast amount of medical authority, and digested nu- 
merous tables of statistics. The conclusion I arrive at is. that the only class of 
consumotives benefitted at all by warm, equable regions, are those in the very 
incipient stages ; that the benefit in such ca-ses is due more to the change than 
anything else ; and that the same class of patients would be benefitted to a still 
greater degree by a dry, cool, ela.stic atmosphere, such aa we have in Minnesota, 
and in parts of New Mexico and California. 

Dr. Chas. A. Leas, United States consul at Madeira, who has resided in Rus- 
sia, Sweden, Central America, and Madeira, in the service of the government, 
nnder date of September 10th, 1866, writes : "I have made the subject of cli- 
mate, as a curative agent in consumption, a special study, and in connection with 
my annual report to the State l)epartmeut at Washington — just now sent on — 
I have entered somewhat into detail upon that subject, and huve endeavored to 
show, from observation, that consumption, in its earlier stages, is best relieved 
by a visit to, and residence of greater or less extent in, high northern latitudes, 
instead of warm climates, as is the usual custom. I have further suggested Min- 
nesota as one of the finest climates for that purpose." 

In the report above alluded to. Dr. Leas accounts for the superior advantages 
of a high, dry, cool latitude, in tubercular diseases, on the theory that the lungs, 
in health, are only sufiBciently capacious to "atlmit air enough to purify, through 
its oxygen, the whole of the blood ; iu proportion as the air thus breathed ia 
contaminated, or mixed with moisture and other impurities, so will the amount 
of oxygen admitted into the lungs at any time, be diminished in quantity, and to 
the same extent, a portion of the vital fluid uiioxygeuized," giving rise to a di- 
minished vitality, and thus laying the groundwork "for the development of con- 
sumption, under causes favorable to such a result." The atmosphere in high 
northern latitudes, is much purer than that of warm countries, on account of the 
precipitation of its excess of moisture by the cold, "thus giving a larger amount 
of oxygen, which is the great vivifying element in a givi n timount of air, and 
thms again enabling the lungs to more thoroughly purify the entire volume of 
blood. And more particularly are the lungs thus aided when a portion of their 
substance is thrown out of action from the actual deposition of tubercular mat- 
ter. Besides all that, the frequence of such a large amount of pui-e atmosphere 
to the circulating fluid, has a decidedly tonic and invigorating efiect upon that 
element, and through it the whole system. * * * * ^u^j 

for such an atmosphere as is here indicated, I would suggest to invalids affected 
with pulmonary disease, that they are most likely to find it in Minnesota.' 

The fact is worthy of note, that this communication comes from Madeira, an 
island which has been termed " the city of refuge " for consumptives. But the 
testimony of Dr. Mason, and the statistics of Dr. Reuton, prove that it is only 
those in the very incipient stages that have been benefitted thei-e. Of forty-seven 
confirmed consumptives who landed there, not one lived six months 1 Aud yet 
Madeira has the most equable cUmate in the world, — the temperature 
never varying over eleven degrees the year around, — never higher than 74 de- 
grees, nor lower than 63 degrees. With a warm, bajiltic soil, protection from 
winds, perennial summer, and tropical luxuriance, it would seem to be the con- 
sumptive's paradise ; but such is not the ca.se. The rea.soa is simply that the air 
is too stagnant, aud-wants life and perturbation ; and the air ia too moist, expe- 
rience proving that consumptives require an air sufficiently moist to prevent ir- 
ritation of the air pas.«age3, but at the same time dry, elastic, pure, and invigora- 
ting. A little wind, therefore, does no hann, while tiie experience of agos has 
at length established the fact, beyond pera<lventure, that those countries most 
favorable to consumptives, as the steppe of Kirgliis, New .Mexico, Minnesota 
aud (?alifomia, are remarkable for the drynesu and purity of their air, aud are 
subject to occasional changes of tenijjerature, as well as winds. Another fact 

3 



34 MINNESOTA : 

worthy of special mention is, that the disease is seldom ever generated in those 
countries. 

As compared with the other places mentioned, Minnesota takes the palm from 
them all. While some portions of California, and of the Pacific coast general- 
ly, are favorable retreats, others are less so. The mountains are rather cold and 
harsh, — the valleys t/^o stagnant and moist. The country about Sacramento and 
the interior of the State is the most favorable ; but even here, according to Dr. 
Hatch, of Sacramento, although the atmosphere is quite dry, it is very subjectto 
abrupt changes, and extreme vicissitudes of temperature. The same is true of 
that portion of New Mexico and Texas, best adapted to consumptives — those 
fierce "northers," to which they are subject, often causing a change of tempera- 
ture of 60 or CO degrees in a few hours, and rendering winter clothing very ac- 
ceptable. And yet Dr. Lawson says : "It is extremely probable, if not posi- 
tively certain, that the territory known as New Mexico, embracing Sauta Fe, is 
more favorable to consumptives than any point on the American continent, if 
not in the civilized world." Minnesota, at the time this was writt«^n, although 
even then a great resort for consumptives, had not become known to the slow 
Pegasus of the medical muse. Drs. Gregg and Hammond, in their accounts of 
the climate, show it to be very similar to, but inferior to that of Minnesota. It 
is dryer — rather too diy — increasing the bronchial irritation and dyspepsia, aris- 
ing from inflammatory action of the mucous membrane of the storai'ch, and in- 
flammation of the lungs. The climate is more changeable than ours, and subject 
to severer currents of wind. With these exceptions, the climate is very similar 
to ours. The air is dry and pure, and "persons withered almost to mummies 
are to be occasionally encountered, whose extraordinary age is only to be in- 
ferred from their recollection of certain notable events, which had taken place in 
times far remote." 

Yet we have in Minnesota a climate superior as 'a resort for invalids, to even 
New Mexcico. We have never had any epidemic of typhoid or other fevers, 
but owing to its wanner climate (its yearly mean being 50° 6) New Mexico is 
somewhat subject to this class of disease. The typhoid fever raged there as an 
epidemic from 1837 to 1839. Our winds, instead of being strong, cold, and con- 
tinued currents, constitnte rather a lively agitation, or perturbation of the air ; 
and finally, Minnesota is as accessible by railroad and steamers as Chicago, while 
in New Mexico, Dr. Lawson says that "the difficulty of access, as well as the 
want of accommodations, and tihe character of the population, (Indians and 
hunters, or "rangers,") will, for a long period, deter even those who have sufi&- 
cient physical ability, from visiting the country." 

The conclusion is thus forcibly impressed upon us, that for invalids, as well as 
for every class of inhabitants required to populate a State, Minnesota is superior 
as a place of settlement to any region in the world. 

Without asserting that all persons afflicted with pulmonary disease, will in- 
variable recover in Minnesota, it may be safely claimed that no climate under 
heaven ofi'ers equal advantages to this class of invalids. While it is undoubted- 
ly true that a larger percentage of those in the early stages of the disease will 
recover, there can be no doubt but that those in the second and third stages often 
get weU here. No physician can foretell the result of a trial. The only method 
of deciding the question is by actual residence. There are those here, whom no 
one would take to be consumptives, who have had but one lung for over ten 
years. Many come too late, or coming in time, continue here the over-taxation 
of mind or body, or other unhealthy habits, which first broke them down. Their 
friends blame the climate, if they fail to recover ; but the fact Ls well established, 
that any case within the reach of climatic influence, will get well here, if any- 
where. Another fact equally well established, is that a permanent residence 
here is better, in order to render the cure permanent Many instances might be 
cited, where invalids, after spending a year or so here, and apparently got well, 
have gone East and died of the disease ; of others, experiencing a return of the 
old symptoms, and making a second recovery after returning to Minnesota. 
Many cases, however, are cured, or greatly benefitted, by a sojourn of a few 



ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS. 85 

months. Sometimes years are required to eflFect a complete cure. It is better 
for all desiring to secure the beneflts of our climate, to cut loose from all busi- 
ness relations where they reside, take np their abode, and go into business here, 
as a resident has much better chances of recovery than a visitor, who is de- 
prived of ftomecom/or/s and associations. Seasons vaiy, more or less, every- 
where. Some are more favorable than others, but taken one year with another, 
Minnesota, as a sanitarium, will be found all that it is represented to be. 

MINNESOTA SCENERY — RESORTS FOR TOURISTS. 

The sceuery of Minnesota has attracted the attention of many Avriters, paint- 
ers and poets, and elicited eulogies in prose and verse, ever since the first white 
man stood on the brink of St. Authony's Falls, or listened to the gleeful splash- 
ings of Minnehaha. The brilliant purity, dryness and elasticity of the air, bring- 
ing every object out with bold, distinct outlines, lends a peculiar charm to tke 
lovely scenery which everywhere abounds. The nights, particularly, are serene 
and beautiful beyond description. Prof Maury, author of the "Physical Geo< 
graphy of the Sea," says : "At the small hours of night, at dewy eve and early 
morn, I have looked out with wonder, love and admiration, upon the steel blue 
sky of Minnesota, set with diamoudd and sparkling with brilliants of purest ray. 
Herschell has said, that in Europe, the astronomer might consider himself highly 
favored, if by watching the skies for one year, he shall, during that period, find, 
all told, one hundred hours suitable for satisfactory observation. A telescope- 
mounted here, in this atmosphere, under the skies of Miauesota, would have its 
■powers increased many times over what they would be, under canopies less 
brilliant and lovely," cud many hundred such hours could be found here within 
that period. 

The State is encircled by lakes and rivers, like the garden of Eden, as pic- 
tured by the imagination. In fact, the numerous streams and lakes of Minneso- 
ta, form one of its characteristic charms, and when it was the habitation of the 
Indians, they showed their appreciation of them by erecting their rude lodges oq 
their shady, pebbly shores. The larger lakes, with outlets, are from one to thir- 
ty miles in diameter. The smaller cla.ss, however, are much more nura*^rous, and 
"generally distinguished, also, for their clear, white, sandy shores, set in gentle, 
grassy slopes, or rimmed with walls of rock, their pebbly beaches sparkling with 
cornelians and agates, while the oak grove or the denser wood, which skirts its 
margin, completes the graceful and picturesque outline." Prof. Maury says : 
"There is in this territory a greater number of these lovely sheets of laughing 
water, than in all the country betiides. They give variety and beauty to the 
laiidscape ; they soften the air, and lend all their thousand charms and attrac- 
tions to make this goodly laud a lovely place of residence. We see that, with 
these beautiful sheets of water, nature has done for the upper Mississippi what 
Ellett proposes should be done by tlie government for the C)hio, and what Na- 
poleon 111 is doing for the rivers of France." 

ITiese lakes all abound in fish, superior in flavor and quality to those of the 
sluggish streams of the Western States. Many leaping brooks, fed by springs, 
are pure and cold as mountains streams, and abound in speckled trout. To the 
disciples of Izak Walton, Minnesota is a perfect paradise. To one fond of the 
sport, nothing could be more delightful than to drive out to one of these lovely 
sheets of water, spending the heat of the day on their shady shores, and the 
morning and evening in a smah boat, with rod and tackle. In the spring and 
fall these lalces are all covered with ducks and other water fowl, affording rare 
amusement for the sportsman. 

So the tourist who seeks respite from hot pavements, brick walls, and sultry 
cities, relaxation of mind from the cares of business, recreation and recui>eration, 
could tuke up his abode in no more favortd spot. Unlike the cramped quarters, 
artificial enjoyments and tiresome excitement of fashionable places of resort, 
like Saratoga or Newport^ where the heat, dust, and annoyance of city life, is 
found, without any of itg comforts, here the broad fields of primitive nature opens 



36 MINNESOTA. 

wide to view, and invites him to invade her precincts, invigorating body and 
mind. 

From the first of May until the first of August, fishing is the principal sport. 
Sometimes wild pigeons, which often breed in our woods, may be shot in g^at 
numbers in Jsne. After the first of August till frost, fowling commences, and 
the gun and dog take the place of hook and tackle. The first of August in 
Minnesota is what the first of September is in England, when the game law per- 
mits the shooting of prairie chickens, pheasants, grouse, &c., which abound eve- 
rywhere. The larger game, such as deer, elk, and occasionally a bear or buffalo, 
come in with cold weather, and continue till spring. In the fall and spring, 
duck and geese are found plentifully in every little lake. 

Not only to the mere sportsman does Minnesota offer superior attractions, 
but to the tourist generally, and all who would seek rest, natural repose, and 
quiet enjoyment, in a cool, bracing, and healthful climate, surrounded by all the 
pleasant associations of nature, "unmarred by the rude hand of art." Railroads 
and stage coaches may be taken, and the remotest parts of the State reached by 
easy or rapid stages, as may be preferred. 

Every variety of scenery will be met with on these excursions ; now rugged, 
bold, grand, and imposing ; now lovely, beautiful, and picturesque. The pecu- 
liar properties of the air impart a softened brilliancy to the landscape, similar to 
what is seen under the skies of Italy, When clothed in the sylvan garments of 
summer, decked with the floral gems of a thousand fragrant prairies, and lighted 
by ihe gorgeous tints of its sunshine, or meHowed and softened by the dreamy 
haze of the " Indian summer " of the autumn months, nothing could surpass the 
scenery of Minnesota, diversified as it is with rock-ribbed hills and slumbering 
viilleys, woodland and prairie, lofty and rugged bluffs, ravines, gorges, cataracts, 
cascades, eternal springs of limpid purity, and leaping streams which never dry. 



^^ The reader is referred to the second page of the cover for late official 
statements as to the School Fund, Amount of Logs and Lumber, Export of 
"Wheat, Taxable Value of Property, Population, Rail Roads, Amount of State 
Bebt, Reports from the State Laud OfiScers, &c. 

'I'hese could not be obtained in time for the body of the pamphlet, but will 
in the main be found consistent with the facts therein stated. 



SPECIAL NOTICE. 



The first edition stated how this pamphlet is distributed. Many 
properly understand it and send me good long lists of names with 
post oflice address, yet others do not understand the plan, or, disre- 
garding it, write me to send them ten, fifty, an hundred copies, or a 
bundle, for general distribution. Satisfied that a large propoi-tion 
thus sent out in boxes and bundles are wasted, I tried a new plan, 
which does its work well. The pamj^hlet is mailed from my office to 
each name sent me. 

The State now assists the supply, and this pamphlet is sent without 
cost. Lists of names in all parts of our own and foreign countriea 
solicited, not exclusively those who think of chanjjing their residence, 
but good citizens everywhere, who will read and circulate information 
regarding our State, of which, as yet, so little is really known. 



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